Lauren DiCioccio’s art is part sculpture, part textile, making for a DIY sort of effect. Each one-of-a-kind piece begins from the inside out, starting with a handful of stuffing and a square of felt, and building shapes and gestures that are determined by the materials themselves. After a coherent series of structures is developed, DiCioccio then upholsters, embroiders, wraps, and weaves, each form individually until it has developed its own identity.
“I‘ve always been attracted to the medium of textiles,” she told Textile Artist, talking about her artistic upbringing. “I think primarily because of the sense of nostalgia they hold for me.”
“I did a lot of craft projects as a kid and it seems like there was always some kind of textile-based project, from sewing Halloween costumes to doing cross-stitch samplers,” she recalled. “The tactility of the material really makes me feel connected to those memories of my first discoveries of making things and I think this is part of what makes the material so evocative for me.”
Based in San Francisco, DiCioccio studied painting first before exploring other avenues. With no prior experience with sewing outside of her childish explorations of costume-making, her work is the result of much trial and error. It’s a result worth taking note of nonetheless.
