Surface Design Artist: Textile & Tactile
The art on American Fiber Artist, Leonie Castelino, is one deeply influenced by the rich textile tradition of her birth country, India, as well as, the lost textile arts of ancient Eastern cultures: Pojagi, Rozome, Shibori. POJAGI (also known as Bojagi) is a square or rectangular Korean Wrapping Cloth, created with embroidery or by piecing or hand patching remnants of cloth. ROZOME is the Japanese art of painting with wax and dye on cloth. SHIBORI is the Japanese art of manipulating cloth is some way, and securing it to form a resist to dye penetration. It can be flat or textured. Some of the exquisite Japanese kimonos of the past were patterned with rozome or shibori.
Her art finds resonance in a complexity of multi-layers and techniques drawn not only from this rich background, but also from modern innovations.
Cloth is transformed with dye, brush, resists, melt or burn-off, needle, thread and imagery into paintings, hangings and sculpture that are contemporary and evocative. The essence of fabric - linen, Korean hemp, but essentially silk - is explored through varied textures, colors and compositions. Works of abstract expression are organic and sensuous, infused with an Asian aesthetic in the interplay of song and poetry.
Leonie is also known for her tactile art of a by-gone era: European and Asian Decorative Arts of the 18th ? 20th Centuries. Objects of art are rendered in paint, gold leaf, pen work, or eggshell, to simulate Ivory, Boulle, Tortoiseshell, Vizagapatam, Chinoiserie and Japonism. Aesthetic sensibilities of this period are evident in her art in textile, especially in her work with gold leaf.
Leonie's textile and tactile works of art have been displayed in solo and group shows in Galleries, Exhibitions and Museums internationally, and are also owned by private Collectors.
