Jan Hopkins is a fiber artist/basket maker. She has expanded her practice to include alternative materials such as grapefruit peel, sturgeon skin, lotus pods, lunaria seed pods and cantaloupe peels, in addition to traditional basket making materials. Hopkins: ‘There are often restrictions on traditional basket materials in order to protect them from over harvest. I continue to work with traditional materials, but have included alternative materials… that are not restricted and that I can collect in abundance. I am obsessed with pushing the boundaries with these materials and am working toward making large pieces set in environments.’ Hopkins creates primarily figurative female sculptures and, throughout her career, has been inspired by traditional craft and textiles.’
She won the ‘Samuel and Patricia Smith People’s Choice Award’ at Bellevue Arts Museum’s BAM Biennial 2012 for her piece ‘Oh Eleanor’.
© Jan Hopkins.
