Fritzi Huber

About the Artist

Fritzi Huber has been an active artist and arts educator, conducting workshops in hand papermaking at locations such as Arrowmont School for Arts and Crafts, Savannah College of Art and Design, the San Antonio Center for Arts and Crafts, and Pyramid Atlantic in Baltimore, Maryland. Her work has been exhibited around the world from Switzerland s Musee du Pays et Val de Charney, Gruyere, Suisse to Brazil s Bienale International de Artes. In 2011 Fritzi had a one person exhibition here in Wilmington at the Cameron Art Museum.

Artist grants have come her way via the North Carolina Arts Council, NEA, California Arts Council and the Kenan Institute for the Arts where she received a combined grant to enable her to become a certified International Educator through the Lincoln Center Institute. Her local public commissions include the New Hanover County Library, the Aquarium at Fort Fisher and the Wilmington Children s Museum. She is an artist-in residence at Dreams of Wilmington and has been affiliated with the organization for over 13 years. In 2009 Huber traveled to Cochin, India to create a dedication mural for the Home of Hope orphanage located there. She is also active in the film community as a specialty prop maker.

Artist’s Statement

WHERE THE WATER MEETS THE LAND has always been a place of transition. We find flotsam, jetsam, evidences of existing life, or of lives once lived. Treasures are occasionally caught in our nets. Sometimes we catch discards, or debris. Always now, today, there are plastics – confetti. But plastics aren’t all. These works look at other catches, potential finds from this ever shifting edge.

The shores receive arrivals of all sorts every day. Debris from Japan has begun to show a presence after crossing an ocean. The knowledge that we are one world comes home to us. At these boundaries, these tide lines, we find markers indicating the passage of time. Weathered surfaces stand as sentries bearing witness to the catch. The edge is more than the difference between wet and dry, new and old, trash and treasure. It is a place of transient beauty in all of its forms. This is evident not only near the oceans and seas. This beauty is also present in any place which is near lakes, ponds, rivers; living, breathing, water.

HANDMADE PAPER feels to be an ideal medium to express these sentiments. In its formation it is liquid. Once formed it always contains a percentage of water. Anything floating in the vat becomes part of the sheet. Anything the new sheet comes into direct contact with during the drying process becomes part of the sheet, either in the leaving of an impression, or in being included in the final surface. Sometimes these inclusions will partially emerge as would shells in the sand, or leaves through the frost.

I’ve begun to use rain water in preparing the pulp for papermaking. I like to think of it as waters from all over the world coming for a visit, and being a helpful guest.

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