3D Painting
The Evolution of Fiber Sculpture
The form changed. The instinct did not.
Fiber sculpture began for Essebes with curiosity: could she do it?
Needle felting offered a completely different physical form from canvas, but the creative process felt unexpectedly familiar. Color could be layered. Character could emerge gradually. An expression could change through a small decision. Instead of creating the illusion of form with paint, the form itself could be built outward.
Essebes began thinking of the process as “3D painting.”
Enough direction to begin
The starting point is rarely completely open-ended. Essebes may know the subject and often knows the feeling she wants the finished work to carry.
What she does not necessarily know is exactly how it will get there. A jaguar can begin with the idea of being regal. A character may begin with a particular personality. From there, proportion, expression, color and detail develop through the act of making.
The form is different from painting, but the working instinct is the same: begin with enough direction to start, then allow the work to answer some of the questions itself.
Across wool, paint and mixed media, the same attention remains: building color, form, character and emotion until the work finds its own presence.
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