Artist Profile
Tracy Micklethwaite – Contemporary Textile Artist

Tracy Micklethwaite is a contemporary textile multimedia artist with a background in commercial textile design and teaching within Further and Higher Education. Studying Textile Design at Brighton University and graduating in 1990 with a BA (Hons), followed by a successful career as a designer in the textile industry in the UK and the USA. Art work has been exhibited regularly in the UK since 1992 through galleries, exhibitions and trade fairs. She sells directly to the public and undertakes commissions. Following the completion of an M.A Fine Art Textiles at Winchester School of Art in 2008 her work has developed using fine art methodology and technique to include contemporary fine art mixed media pieces, sculpture, and site-specific installations.

“My artwork has developed from producing functional textiles for interiors and fashion uses, into multimedia textile art which can be appreciated as contemporary artworks. I am passionate about surface and stitch and my work is a response and interpretation of my photographs, drawing and observations of the natural world – symmetry, pattern, and life cycle processes within organic and natural forms are represented in fibre and thread.”

Collage techniques with handmade papers and vintage fabrics are used to create a surface for hand and machine embroidery. Each piece is unique and contains organic dried and pressed leaves, found objects, stamps, labels and painted imagery. Most fibres and threads are of natural origin and hand dyed. Current work includes a range of contemporary framed textile artworks inspired by botanical illustration.