Vicki Essig

Vicki Essig is a full time artist living and working in the mountains of North Carolina. Studio work includes weaving and paper making, collecting and observing. Her work is quiet, contemplative and deliberate.

Vicki’s professional career began over two decades ago, when she studied hand weaving, textiles and design. She later became proficient at working with uncommonly fine yarns and slowly developed a body of work that incorporated intricate patterns with remnants of nature and fragments of old books. She recently built a new studio where she will continue her exploration of textiles along with paper, book arts, photography and printmaking.

Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and can be found in the collections of North Shore University HealthSystem in Chicago Illinois; Fidelity Investment Bank in Raleigh North Carolina, Baylor University, University of Washington, and the Universities of California at San Diego and Santa Cruz.

Artist Statement

On my daily hikes my pockets gradually fill with artifacts and curiosities that I find along my path. These small treasures that are often overlooked, are archived into my fine handwoven cloth.

Many compositions incorporate nearly two hundred year old manuscripts and texts. The fragments of this rag paper, with barely detectable messages, are hand woven into the silk cloth producing an intricate structure that weaves the past with the present. This ritual has lead me to pursue the spirituality of art, which is presented to me everyday as I thread my loom, collect a dried pod, or work out a design.

In viewing my work, my hope is that, for at least a moment, you become lost in the discovery of the minute, the quiet of repetition, and the beauty of nature and pattern.