A Central Alberta artist will have her artwork on display at the Draper Hotel in New York City.
Karen Scarlett, of Innisfail, was recently invited to create commissioned artwork for VLDG Inc., which is a design studio in New York and New Jersey that specializes in luxury residential projects and boutique hotels.
Her project is described as a two-part, fibre-art installation inspired by the location of the hotel in midtown Manhattan, which is the former fashion district of New York City.
She created the first half of the project last year. It consists of two doorway entrance details composed of thousands of spools of thread. This is located in the bar and lounge on the hotel's main floor.
"The designers of VLDG designers have shared the installation images and videos with me, which has been exciting to see, especially since they started as four bare pieces of wood and now are installed, lit and look very cool," said Scarlett.
“It is fun to imagine people vacationing from all over the world at the Draper Hotel and walking through my spools of thread doorways.”
Over the last two months, Scarlett has worked to finish four large woven hoops, each three feet in diameter. These hoops portray the four seasons, with imagery inspired from memories of growing up in the prairies and living as an adult in New York City.
Once the artwork arrives, the hoops will eventually live in custom bar shelving that can be seen from the common area of the lounge, as well as through the glass wall of the main floor bar and lounge with access to the covered outdoor garden.
“My Grandma Scarlett was a weaver, she made her own looms. I did my first weaving with her when I was about six years old and it formed part of my lifelong love of creating with fibre," Scarlett said.
Scarlett met VLDG co-founder and creative director Vennie Lau when they studied interior design at Mount Royal University in Calgary in the late 1990s — they have remained in contact over the last three decades.
Scarlett worked on a previous project with VLDG, when she was commissioned to create more than 155 original pieces of art for the Royal Palm Hotel and Resort in South Beach, Miami in 2017.
“VLDG creates a customized design story for all of our projects. This narrative carries through to the defined details and we enjoy working with Karen because she understands the nuances. Her ability to translate the design vision into her art is a special talent," said Lau.
