We were lucky to catch up with Priscilla Roggenkamp recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Priscilla thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

One meaningful experience relates to a piece called, “Refugee”. I was offered a residency at Haystack Mountain School for Crafts in 2015. I had been working on series of textile pieces that were both a nod to the figure and something utilitarian like a bucket or luggage. I had been thinking a lot about how to express ‘the things we carry’ in life through clothing forms.

Since I was headed to the ocean (and back to the state I was born in) I wanted this piece to also have references to that experience. Looking at Winslow Homer’s paintings of women at the sea, I found some form ideas within the clothing of these wind-tossed women. Researching buckets I explored the canvas and rope buckets used by sailors.

At Haystack I designed and created two figural piece. New to dyeing, I had wonderful help dyeing the pieces indigo. Then my idea was to dunk the two figure/bucket pieces into the ocean everyday and let them dry, giving them the patina of the sea. Well…this didn’t quite work out. Everyday, the sea dunked pieces just looked clean.

So I headed home with my pieces and strung them up in the yard from June through November. The wind, rain, sunshine and snow gave these works the perfect worn, traveled and wind tossed look. I eventually added keys, bags, and a raft and created the installation “Refugee”.

What was so meaningful about this? It was the journey that the pieces and I went on. The research, the making, the trial and error, the conversations with other artists at the residency, the way the pieces grew and changed over time, and the ultimate coalescing of the elements into a single idea.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have always been an artist, though I often still wonder what that means. I trained in undergraduate and graduate school. I also trained to teach, and did that for a career, teaching every level from Kindergarten to college. I ended my career as a tenured associate professor at Ashland University in Ohio. Teaching, especially at the college level, allowed me the flexibility to keep making art. My students and other colleagues were instrumental in inspiring me and keeping me open to new ideas and processes.

My family was/is, among other things, a very musical bunch, so music was also part of my everyday life growing up and into adulthood. For the past 16 years I have been the bass player and a songwriter in the band, Rock Salt and Nails. These two creative pursuits, art and music, compliment each other and allow me to lead a very fulfilling life.

As an artist I work in both 2-d and 3-d media. Drawing and painting are the foundation of my work, but the textile work I have done in the last twenty years is the work I am known for. My textile work follows themes such as immigration, women’s issues, the things we carry through life, passing on knowledge and wisdom, and the strength of the collective.

In my textile based art, I am mostly a constructor of sculptural forms. Though I weave, dye, crochet and felt, my sculptural language is sewing. I enjoy drawing on the collective knowledge of clothing and fabric that we all share. As one who has done a bit of costume designing, I understand how much clothing says about a person. I use that experience to move the viewer toward my ideas. I am careful to avoid the wearable aspect of textiles preferring that my forms are abstract and removed from the viewer’s ability to consider fashion and style.

I am also an avid hiker and lover of outdoors pursuits. I just returned from hiking in the French and Italian Alps. This love of the endless compositions and formal interactions in nature is what compels my two-dimensional works. I am still processes the beautiful Alps and wondering how that spacious feeling will show up in my next drawings and paintings.

Both my head and my heart move in two different directions in my artwork. My textiles are my more conceptual works, my drawings and paintings, more formal and expressionistic. When I really ponder which direction to take next…I just go make some music!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Though there are many rewarding aspects of making art…not the least of which is the final piece if successful…I would have to say that the act of problem solving is very rewarding. With my work, I am almost never making a new piece that is like any of my older pieces. I am always moving forward into the unknown. I envision a new piece and then have to consider…how do I make it? Though, of course, I draw of a lot of learned knowledge, every piece offers something new to figure out.

In the piece I am currently working on, there are many technical problems to solve. There are issues of size and weight. I’m going to paint a warp for weaving but I’m trying something new…a different type of coloring agent that I’ve never used before. I have ideas about what this piece will look like, but I’m often wrong in the abstract. There will be more that this piece asks of me to figure out…it’s never smooth sailing. And I like it that way. I could come up with a formula for my work and keep repeating a successful process…but I’d be bored and want to try something new before long.

So, the problem solving is frustrating, but ultimately rewarding as it take me to places I haven’t been before.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think many people struggle to understand why creatives don’t repeat themselves if they find something that works. Don’t get me wrong, many artistic folks do find or develop something wonderful then repeat that with variations for a lifetime. But at a basic level, creative artists are not making widgets. What are we as artists if we are not continually traveling a new path or taking variations of the paths that we trod before. In many ways, artists teach themselves with every artwork that they make. If you are in the game, then you are constantly being self critical. You are questioning yourself and seeking growth opportunities. This can be hard and even discouraging. It’s worthwhile to have artist friends who share your values who can help nudge you forward in the times of discouragement. But growth as an artist, just like growth as a person, is a fulfilling part of challenging oneself and is critical to being an artist.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.priscillaroggenkamp.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/priscilla.roggenkamp/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@rsnband2211/videos?app=desktop
• Other: https://www.rsn-band.com

Image Credits

Photos credits are mine.