Valerie Doran Bashaw

Photo of Valerie Doran Bashaw My career as an artist truly began when I was in the fourth grade and my insightful teacher made me the official fresh flower arranger, as she was an avid gardener. After completing high school, I attended Johnson County Community College. I then went on to the Kansas City Art Institute and received a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts, in Fiber, 1984. I rented a studio in the Waldo area of Kansas City for 6 years and created mixed media and handmade paper works, while also dyeing and printing on silk scarves. My artwork was exhibited in local galleries, restaurants and other venues.

Photo of Valerie and students with their fiber art In 1990 I moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan and attended the University of Michigan, receiving my Masters Degree in Fine Arts, in Fiber, in 1993. I taught college-level art in Graduate school at Michigan and at Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg when I returned to Kansas City in 1993. I taught for the Kansas City Chapter of Young Audiences, Incorporated, as an Artist in Residence for 13 wonderful years, visiting schools all over the Kansas City area.

I continue to teach as the lead art teacher for the summer school program at The Barstow School (for 9 years now!), and really love sharing my joy in creating art with young people. Making art teaches us creative strategies that can have applications in any field, from science to medicine and more, we learn to brain storm and to learn from our mistakes and “accidentally” to head in new directions; it’s very exciting and invaluable too. One of my grad school professors referred to me as “eclectic,” I know how to work with so many media, always my voice comes through no matter what I use, and it makes me a good teacher too.

I have been elected to the Board of Directors of the Best of Missouri Hands artisan organization, and am actively involved in arts administration and promotion statewide for our membership of nearly 500 professional artists. I was the conference registrar for our 2008 annual conference. I am also active in the Missouri Fiber Artists and the NAIA, National Association of Independent Artists, I believe in networking with other artists and arts professionals. I am on the Board of Directors of Sharing a Vision for Generations, we raise funds for scholarships for Native American women on two reservations in South Dakota, and we truly see first hand how education changes lives!

My focus has been on doing art fairs for the past three years, and I am returning to exhibiting my work in galleries and public spaces, while actively seeking commissions to create work for businesses, shopping areas, hospitals and more. My work is about healing, and has been collected by doctors and therapists, among others, as it seems to really resonate in this type of environment. I feel that we are over stimulated, too much “instant everything”, and that we truly need a place to be quiet, to rest and recover, and you can do that with my work.

In 2007 I completed a large commission piece for Kansas City Kansas Community College titled “Four Seasons on the Kaw River,” it is composed of four panels made of shibori-dyed silk fabric, each of a season of the year, and is 43” tall by 72” wide. Shibori is an ancient Japanese tie dye technique, the resulting patterns are very suggestive of landscape, branches, geological processes, water and more. It lends itself to contemplation, what am I seeing, what does it remind me of and more? You have to be quiet to really look at it, take a deep breath and a few minutes, and what a good thing, a place to rest and renew!

I have several art exhibits and art fairs scheduled for 2008 and am ecstatic over my new direction, and anticipate great success! Please contact me for information about my work.

Valerie Doran Bashaw
Woven Wind Fiber Studio
E-mail Valerie
Phone: 620-437-7618

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