What to do in Oklahoma on Jan. 14, 2013: See "Water Works" at the Oklahoma State Capitol

“Sunset,” a fabric creation by Pamela Husky

Today’s featured event:

Check out “Water Works,” Oklahoma artist Pamela Husky’s new exhibit, on view in the East Gallery of the state Capitol.

The exhibit is on view through Feb. 10.

Located on the first floor of the Capitol, the Governor’s Gallery features paintings and mixed-media works by current Oklahoma artists. It is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and weekends from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (use west entrance on weekends).

Husky creates fiber art from her home studio on Lake Eufaula.

“My view is of the shoreline, beautiful in every hour and season,” Husky says in a news release.

Many of the works included in this exhibit, titled “Water Works,” convey those images – the surface of rocks, bark of the trees, depth of sky, and reflections or waves on water.

Husky first learned the foundation of fiber art when she was 4 and her grandmother taught her to sew and to cut accordion-dolls from paper. “I still love working with fiber,” she says in the release.

People began felting, spinning, and weaving thousands of years ago, and fiber is an intimate part of our lives today. Old fabric from clothing or a blanket or rug can evoke memories of a place or time as easily as a song. Fiber is a baby’s blanket, a wedding gown, military uniform, or flag. Husky explains, “In my work, the cut pieces of those fabrics have new life as elements of color or texture in a landscape.”

Feltmaking is an ancient process in which heat and pressure cause wool fibers to tightly interlock. Husky overlaps thin handfuls of wool to form a blanket eight layers thick. She dyes wool, mohair, silk, ramie, and handspun yarns. These fabrics are trapped in the top layers to create the design. Carding, a process that disentangles, cleans, and intermixes fibers together blends the colors. Resist fabric is inserted between layers to build a three-dimensional surface.