Katie Hickey

Katie Hickey’s Artist Statement

My images for tapestry emerge out of what I see and experience around me—landscape, skyscape, and since coming to live on Cape Cod, seascape. I am inspired by the deeply-felt geometry of Navajo weaving, and by the color explorations of 19^th and 20th-century painters. I am intrigued by the problem-solving that tapestry weaving forces me to do, and the ways in which tapestry has its own unique “mark-making” system that is unlike any other art form.

Every tapestry that I weave is a journey, beginning at the bottom and telling its own story as it grows toward the top, producing both expression and object. I love the feel of the tools in my hands, and though not a patient person for much of my life, I appreciate that it is slow and meticulous work. It always reminds me to be exactly where I am.

Katie Hickey’s Biography

I have been weaving for over 30 years. My first weaving teacher was Judy McCarthy, a weaver who at the time was director of Peter’s Valley Craft School in Layton, NJ. Judy is also my aunt, and I first knew I wanted to weave when I visited her in Tennessee as a young teenager and saw a loom sitting in her living room. When I began to study with Judy, the first thing she taught me was how to make images with warp and weft—my first tapestries. I was 22 years old, fresh out of college, and recovering from a heartbreak. I sat at Judy’s loom day after day for several months and poured my heart and soul into learning to weave. It has sustained and nourished me ever since.

As a tapestry weaver, I am largely self-taught, although I have studied with and been influenced by other tapestry weavers, particularly Micala Sidore and Carol Russell. In 2008, I had the rare privilege of studying with Navajo weaver Jennie Slick. I now teach tapestry through my local adult community education program, where my students constantly inspire and challenge me.