Artist: Cas Holmes of Maidstone, Kent, United Kingdom
Interview 106
Subscribe to Artist Interviews here...
Interviews published by Gareth Bate & Dawne Rudman.
Biography
Cas Holmes has an Honours Degree in Fine Art (University of Creative Arts, Kent, England) and gained further practical experience through long-term studies in Japan and Canada (supported by the Winston Churchill Memorial Fellowship and the Japan Foundation). A British Council Award to Canada allowed further research into art organizations re-using found materials. She enjoys the challenge of working on site-specific projects either for temporary or permanent installation for indoor and outdoor spaces. Often she works in collaboration with other artists, performers and the broader community both in the U.K. and overseas. Commissions include work for hospitals, art centres and regional councils. Projects undertaken focus on environmental/social issues and are usually of a participatory nature.Cas' website.
 |
Artist: Cas Holmes |
Tell us about your work?
I work with found materials and have a sustainable approach to textiles, which is fast becoming a trend. This desire to re-use is part of an ethical choice. Clothing, plant materials, printed paper, I use whatever I find or am given. This started from need … I had little money to spare when I was studying art and worked evenings in a pub just to ensure I could eat. Old fabrics have been washed so many times the fibres become very receptive to dyes and marks. Paper ages as its is handled. I like to 'destroy' and remake things. My favourite found tool has to be a basic Bernina sewing machine I recovered from a skip. I taught myself to stitch using this old machine and loved the way I could get it to respond to my movements linking drawing with stitch. If I ever lost it, it would be very hard to replace.
 |
Pendulous and Nocturne, Waterland series, Beneath The Surface touring exhibition. Installation at the Riverhouse Gallery, Walton-on-Thames, UK. Work based on poems by Sylvia Plath. Paper and textiles layers, dye, paint, print, machine and hand, embroidery. Pendulous 40 pieces each 200x10x10cm, Nocturne, 200x160cm. Photo: Cas Holmes. |
 |
Nocturne, Waterland series, Beneath The Surface touring exhibition. Installation at the Metropole Galleries, Folksetone, UK. Paper and textiles layers, dye, paint, print, machine and hand embroidery, 200x160cm. Photo: Cas Holmes. |
From where do you get your inspiration?
I look for the hidden or often overlooked parts of our world and the process of change, (the verges of our roadsides, field edges, the places where our gardens meet the outside spaces). I like the ideals of Wabi-Sabi and the idea that beauty can be found in overlooked details and the things of everyday life and outside spaces (I studied in Japan in the early eighties where a whole world of paper and textile art opened up before me.) I refer to this connection as an interest in 'Urban-Nature'.
 |
Red Herring (on Wall) 12 panels each 20x220cm and Fishing in Texas (Window) 3 panels each 40x300cm (Waterland series) Beneath The Surface touring exhibition. Installation at the Metropole Galleries, Folkstone, UK Paper and textiles layers, dye, paint, print, machine and hand embroidery |
Why did you choose to go into fibre art?
I think it choose me. I trained in painting and have no formal training in textiles and do not remember seeing my immediate family stitch at home. Again, lack of money whilst at college meant I had to work on top of old canvases. I tore into one as part of an experiment and then started to stitch it together. I have never looked back.
 |
Counting Crows, (and As the Crow Flies background - Land series). Installation Land at Cowslip Farm and Gallery, Cornwall. Paper and textiles layers, ink drawing, dye, paint, print, machine and hand embroidery. 10 panels each 180x40cm. As the Crow Flies, 4 panels each 180x60cm. Photo: Cas Holmes |
 |
Counting Crows, detail Land series, showing plant stencil and stitch. Photo: Cas Holmes |
What other mediums do you work in, and how does this inform your fibre work?
I trained in photography and in printmaking and I draw all the time. I see the boundaries between textiles and painting as blurred ... I like to show my work 'without frames' as such, seeing how the pieces develop. They are as much linked to the process of painting and drawing as they are to textiles. My lines becomes stitch, my colour is dye and paint.
 |
Fen, Land series. Paper and textiles layers, print, buried sheeting, dye, paint, print, machine and hand embroidery. Installation Tunbridge Wells Museum and Art Gallery. 14 Panels each 210x80x4xm approximately. Photo: Cas Holmes. |
What specific historic artists have influenced your work?
I am influenced by writers, music as well as artists and prefer to answer this question as what creative sources have influenced my work?
I grew up in Norfolk and I am greatly influenced by this landscape which is wonderfully described in the writing of: Waterlands by Graham Swift, and Crow Country by Mark Cocker (I have just lost my copy). I am sure it will find its way back. They both relate to Norfolk, the Fens and Broads in East Anglia and the descriptions of this flat water land are stunning.
Corvus: A Life with Birds by Esther Woolfson – a captivating story, a biography of a woman and her crows.
Equally the watercolours of John Sell Cotman in the late 19th century. He was far ahead of his times.
Japanese Folk Art or Mingei and the wonderful printed textiles and paper specifically.
Lark Ascending music by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Historical textile art specifically the printed and wallpapers from the Silver Studio UK. Everything I can find in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. English artists John Piper, Graham Sutherland. Canadian painter Emily Carr.
There is so much lovely stuff its impossible to list it all. To name a few such as the botanical illustrations of Marianne North at Kew Gardens in London, England. Amish Quilts, and many areas of folk art such as traditional barge and vardo (gypsy caravan) painting in the UK and indigo dyed fabric in Japan.
World of Threads Suggests: |
 |
Spring Snow, Urban Nature series. Paper and textiles layers, print, worked on top of an old silver polishing rag, dye, paint, print, machine and hand embroidery, 52x52cm. Photo: Cas Holmes. |
 |
Crow, Domestic Mapping series. Paper and textiles layers, print, worked on top of an old tea towel, dye, paint, print, machine and hand embroidery, 35x35cm. Photo: Cas Holmes. |
What other fibre artists are you interested in?
Joan Schulz: I was fortunate enough to meet her a few years ago while working in New Zealand. She has amazing vigour and directness in her work.
Polish weaver Magdalena Abakanowicz and the humanity in her pieces. Too many to list further.
World of Threads Suggests: |
 |
Shorelines, Waterland series, Beneath The Surface touring exhibition. Installation at the Metropole Galleries, Folksetone, UK. Paper and textiles layers, dye, paint, print, machine and hand embroidery, 6 panels each 40x160cm. Photo: Cas Holmes. |
 |
Marsh Grass, Waterland series, Commissioned piece for a teachers retirement. Incorporates Children's signatures in the horizon line. Two panel piece, paper and textiles layers, dye, paint, print, machine and hand embroidery, 170x130cm. Photo: Cas Holmes. |
What role do you think fibre art plays in contemporary art?
It is a contemporary art form. The materials should not define it as being other. It is the specifics of the materials we use and the links, historic, social and domestic which can be used to present additional frameworks for meaning and interpretation.
 |
Preniac Grasses, Urban Nature series. Paper and textiles layers, print, worked on top of an old tea towel, dye, paint, print, machine and hand embroidery. 30X50cm (private collector). Photo: Cas Holmes. |
 |
West Dean Mapping. Book form with old book pages and domestic fabrics. Stitch, dye, drawing. 70X12x12cm. (private collector). Photo: Cas Holmes. |
Please explain how you developed your own style.
When you walk, cycle and use public transportation, you aren't isolated. You make direct contact with the physical world and dress appropriately for the weather! I have always lived in towns which also are next to parks or open spaces. It gives me a broad range of materials and references to work with. I only have to walk outside my front door. These simple things of my daily life are inspiration. I think this is where I have developed 'my style'.
 |
Red Barge Sails, Windows series. Paper and textiles layers, print, worked on top of curtain fabric, dye, paint, print, machine and handmade machine stitch, 40x40cm. Photo: Cas Holmes. |
 |
Hercacleum Sphondylium. Paper and textiles layers, print, worked on top of an old tablecloths, dye, paint, print, machine and hand embroidery. Ink drawing and transfer, 105x105cm (private collector). Photo: Cas Holmes. |
You run a number of workshops, both locally and internationally. Please talk to us about this:
I remember this quote in a catalogue Reflections about my work sometime ago. I think it is still relevant today:
Being a practicing artist and a community artist is a kind of double life but she suggests, 'they are closely interwoven'. The low-tech systems she employs in her personal art practice are flexible enough to be used by people of all levels of skill and ability. It is one of the reasons why her work is accessible to a wide audience. Moira Vincentelli (From Reflections catalogue 1999)
I enjoy the challenge of working on site-specific projects and installations in collaboration with the community and other artists, performers and musicians, as it can lead to different interpretations and opportunities for your work. You reach different audiences and learn from this exchange with others. Tea-Flora-Tales as part of of my recent exhibition, Urban Nature is an example of an ongoing collaboration.
 |
Red Earth, Land series. Installation Land at Cowslip Farm and Gallery, Cornwall, UK. Paper and textiles layers, print, buried sheeting, dye, paint, print, machine and hand embroidery, 160x90cm (private collector). Photo: Cas Holmes. |
Tell us about your experiences during your periods of long-term study in Japan:
My understanding of paper and related media was greatly enhanced during two periods of long-term study in Japan in the mid to late eighties (supported by the Japan Foundation and the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust). During this period of study I gave talks and workshops demonstrating my own techniques. This proved a most fulfilling exchange, which had long term influence on my future explorations. I was able to adapt processes to suit my own work. By no means was I making 'Japanese-style pieces', my research and training was not long enough and it was not this which interested me. Rather, it was the whole concept of paper and textiles being an essential part of the Japanese culture and the amazing variety of application from paper cloth to walls of buildings which taught me to challenge and push material usage.
.jpg) |
Cuttings 5, Paper and textiles layers, print, worked on top of vintage textiles, dye, paint, print, machine and hand embroidery. One of the series as also been used as the front cover of Connected Cloth, Photo: Cas Holmes. |
 |
Daisy Daisy, Series based on weeds that used to grow on wild land in the Lea Valley, now the site of the Olympic Park. Transfer dyes, paper and textiles layers, print, worked on top of vintage textiles, dye, paint, print, machine and hand embroidery, 25x25cm. Photo: Cas Holmes. |
How did you branch out to being an author and getting published?
I had long been asked when I was going to write a book by students on courses. I always responded: When the right publishers came along ... Batsford/Anova were the right publishers. I have always had a 'What if?' attitude and decided to 'give it a go'. I am not an academic and thought I may not have the right set of skills. But I just kept plodding on. At times, I wanted to just do my 'visual stuff; but I managed. Working on my second book with Anne Kelly brought an new dimension to the writing and demonstrated the strength of collaboration.
World of Threads Suggests: |
 |
Connected Cloth. Cover of her second book Connected Cloth co-written with Anne Kelly. The book discusses approaches to collaborative textile. Batsford/Anova 2013. Compliments of Batford. Photo: Rachel Whiting |
Tell us about your studio and how you work:
My studio is a small room in my house which ends up with me working in the garden, the kitchen, sitting in front of the TV and even on trains and buses when I stitch. I make good use of small spaces and like my Romany grandmother, a space organizer. Currently putting stairs to the loft space, means everything is even more compacted as I work with stuff from in the loft, under tables, chairs and the bed!
 |
Studio. All fittings are made from found resources. Even the sewing machine was found in a skip (dumpster). Photo: Cas Holmes |
 |
Artwork in progress. Working on Windows series piece: Willowherb and Jug (now in private collection). Photo: Cas Holmes |
 |
Sun print. Sun printing in progress with glass and flower. Photo: Cas Holmes |
What interests you about the World of Threads festival?
Variety, challenge and wonderful stitchery.
 |
Field Margins, Urban Nature series. Paper and textiles layers, print, worked on top of old curtains, dye, paint, print, machine and hand embroidery. Transfer dye with plants, 120x84cm. Photo: Cas Holmes. |
 |
Field Margins, detail, Urban Nature series. Paper and textiles layers, print, worked on top of old curtains dye, paint, print, machine and hand embroidery. Transfer dye with plants. Photo: Cas Holmes. |
Is there something else you would like us to know about you or your work that we have not covered?
Following a very successful exhibition of Urban Nature during my period as guest artist at the the Knitting and Stitching Show and Festival of Quilts in the UK (London, Harrogate and Birmingham, 2012) I am continuing to develop ideas and will be exhibiting some of the work in the future.
I was awarded a Pride of Britain Award from the NRI institute (Non Resident Indian Institute) for my overseas community work in developing Anglo-Indian relations.
My works are included in many prominent collections including Arts Council England collection held at Hove Museum, Hove, Sussex, UK; Museum of Art and Design, New York; Oji Paper Museum, Tokyo; Embroiderer's Guild UK, at the national Organization Headquarters at Walton-on-Thames, UK); Schroder Finance, Edward James Foundation, West Dean, Chichester.
I am the author of The Found Object in Textile Art, Batsford publication 2010 (reprinted three times) and Connected Cloth 2013 (this book was co-authored with Anne Kelly)
 |
Along Peddars Way, Urban Nature series. Paper and textiles layers, print, worked on top of an old tablecloths, vintage textiles and net curtains, dye, paint, print, machine and hand embroidery, 200x100cm. Photo: Cas Holmes. |
 |
Handkerchief Cornflower Series all worked on top of donated handkerchiefs. Transfer dyes, paper and textiles layers, print, worked on top of vintage textiles, dye, paint, print, machine and hand embroidery, 30x30cm. Photo: Cas Holmes. |
 |
Handkerchief Dandelion,Transfer dyes, paper and textiles layers, print, worked on top of vintage textiles, dye, paint, print, machine and hand embroidery, 30x30cm. Photo: Cas Holmes. |
Do you have any upcoming shows?
In 2014 I have several exhibitions including Archie Textures in Le Mans, France (spring 2014); exhibiting with Quiltstar, Freiberg (summer 2014); and I will be guest artist at the European Patchwork Meeting, St Marie Aux Mains, Alsace, France in September, 2014.
All exhibitions are updated on my blog.
 |
Gladiolus Illyricus. Paper and textiles layers, print, worked on top of an old tablecloths, dye, paint, print, machine and hand embroidery. Sun print with plants, 105x105cm. Photo: Cas Holmes. |
 |
Tea Flora Tales. Small artwork each 10x7cm sent in to the artist as part of an ongoing collaboration to raise awareness of the importance of protecting wild spaces and plant. Photo: Cas Holmes. See www.plantlife.org.uk. |
If you'd like to make a donation to help support our
"Weekly Fibre Artist Interviews" series, you can do so here.
Subscribe To Artist Interviews here...
Interviews published by Gareth Bate & Dawne Rudman.
Disclosure: This article incorporates 'affiliate links' to Amazon.com
Thanks for your support. Click here to shop at Amazon.com