EILEEN BRAUN

ARTIST STATEMENT

"I believe that disregarding conventional rules of material use opens the door to complete creative freedom. I never feel limited to the traditional artist’s toolkit nor to conventional materials. The distinction between fine art and craft is irrelevant in my studio practice.

My current work transforms discarded factory dressmaker’s pattern tissue—sourced from a printing facility—into paper yarn. Using only my fingers, I knit this yarn with a technique I developed. On close inspection, the original markings on the tissue remain visible, preserving a trace of its industrial past.

These knitted forms are often accented with gilding foil or salvaged fibers—such as textile remnants and agricultural baling cord—reconfigured into large-scale wall hangings and vessels with undulating, textured surfaces.

Through this process, humble, discarded materials are elevated, challenging conventions and questioning long-held notions of value and materiality. The work acknowledges the undervalued labor of the seamstress and craftsperson while engaging with the symbolic resonance of gold and cast-off matter. In my hands, these materials acquire renewed presence, rebirth, and worth.

On a monumental scale, these knitted constructions shift the material’s role entirely—from hidden, utilitarian substrate to commanding central presence."

EILEEN BRAUN

BIO

Eileen Braun was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and recalls that as a child she had few store-bought toys. Encouraged to invent her own playthings from scrap paper, fabric remnants, and found objects, she learned early to approach materials with curiosity and imagination—a mindset she still nurtures in her studio environment.

Braun earned a BA in Sculpture and Art Education from Indiana University. Before establishing her Atlanta studio, she served as Executive Director of a New York art center, worked as an art educator, and managed a museum retail operation in Illinois. She has shared her expertise as a diplomat for North Central College of Illinois’ Self Employment in the Arts (SEA) program and as a panelist and presenter for the National Basketry Organization (NBO). She is a Hambidge Center for the Arts and Sciences Fellow.