Painting on the Floor- Three California Painters Design Felt Rugs

Curated and produced by Melina Finkelstein

PAINTING ON THR FLOOR- 3 CALIFORNIA PAINTERS DESIGN FELT RUGS

WHAT: AN EXHIBIT AND RUG COLLECTION BY K’ERA MORGAN, JEN GARRIDO AND MELINA FINKELSTEIN

WHEN: OPENING RECEPTION- SATURDAY, MARCH 1ST 2-6PM THROUGH MARCH 30TH

WHERE: MELINA FINKELSTEIN GALLERY 6020 ADELINE STREET OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA 94608

Painting on the Floor- Three California Painters Design Felt Rugs, marks the creative expansion of my felt rug practice that began in 2002. I invited K’era Morgan and Jen Garrido who are both painters and textile designers to imagine their visual language applied to a felt rug. I am presenting this first series of artist collaborations under a new brand, Melina Finkelstein Rug Co. Labs. This project represents the launch of new artist partnerships and a distribution model rooted in collectivism. All of us will have the opportunity to offer our collections for sale to our collectors. One of the core objectives of this project is to see the felt rug making methods through different eyes with the desire to discover or rediscover new felt making methods as a group. 

The three person exhibit will be held in my studio/ activated gallery space, Melina Finkelstein Gallery, located in Oakland. Recent paintings will be displayed on the walls along with our rugs installed from the ceiling so viewers can walk around them.

K’ERA MORGAN

K'era's artistic practice emerges from an intuitive dialogue with nature and the cosmos, where abstract paintings form through organic layers of bold color, marks, and at times paper ephemera. Beginning with only loose sketches, she allows each piece to evolve fluidly, building delicately layered and dynamic compositions that transcends mere visual representation of the natural world, yet channels and reflects nature's rhythmic essence. The Los Angeles-based artist sees the natural world as a mirror for our collective consciousness, using her work to explore the connections between external landscapes and the internal human experience.

As a graduate of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a former public relations executive, K’era returned to her artistic roots in 2016 and shortly thereafter, expanded her practice beyond fine art. Through k-apostrophe, a home goods line, she transforms her multimedia works into woven decorative textiles. She collaborates with artisans in Mexico and the United States, bringing her artistic vision into functional pieces that have garnered attention from major brands and publications, including a 2021 feature cover in Dwell Magazine's annual emerging designer issue.

Website: k-apostrophe.com

JEN GARRIDO

Jen Garrido creates paintings that reflect internal dialogue, natural forms, and the materials she works with. She attunes to a study of self that guides her through feeling lost, found, and lost again. Formal elements are inspired by nature—they excavate, uncover, and unearth. And she attunes to her relationship with the medium of the paint or drawing materials, projecting images and forms from a play between her inner landscape and the outside world onto the surface of the canvas. Palette emerges from feeling rather than preconception. 

   Garrido’s paintings are meditations on the various parts of her identity. Her process is unstructured but results in the possibility of a structure, building something of a dictionary, or reference book, of the shapes she finds along the way. They are symptoms of an exploration of how shapes might relate to each other, repeating, climbing, leaning, and piling. Weighing ambiguity with representation, a desire for decoration, adding, subtracting, abstracting and transforming, she gradually arrives at a final composition. 

   A Los Angeles native, Garrido currently lives and works in San Francisco. In addition to being a painter, Jen Garrido is the artist behind Jenny Pennwood, her alter-art-ego and small-batch textile-based line of home goods and wearables. Ultimately, the bodies of work are in conversation with each other and are driven by the principle of a blissful alliance between all colors.

Website: jengarrido.com

The Design Process

All three of our rug designs are derived from existing paintings that were completed recently. I selected moments from photos of each painting that I thought could be translated into felt. I made a graphic version of the selection and then we went back and forth making changes to the composition and color until we found the design we liked best. The graphic art was emailed to our rug partners, Betterfelt, an all woman felt artisan workshop in Nepal and we began the process of designing a production plan.

The Feltmaking Process

   The felt method that I have worked with since 2002 is based on the ancient tradition practiced by Central Asian nomadic tribes from Turkey to Iran since the Neolithic Age. Felted rugs were the first wool rugs ever made by humans. The process is technically simple and predates the loom by about two thousand years. The design is drawn on a ‘mother cloth’ that is spread across a large steel table. Historically, this work was done on the floor but we prefer using large tables. I had an incredible opportunity to train our artisan partners during a residency in their Kathmandu workshop in April 2024. I was able to transfer my knowledge that I gained in Iran and Turkey to Nepalese felt makers. Many layers of wool are arranged on the cloth according to color. Another thin cloth is placed over the layers of wool. Hot soapy water is applied and the wool is rubbed gently at first until the wool shrinks enough to connect. Several techniques and tools are used to beat the wool and shape the pattern until it is flat and the felt is very tight. The final step is blocking and drying.