Meet Zoe Gunter | Fiber Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Zoe Gunter and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Zoe, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
As an artist, my work has never felt like work. It’s fun and brings joy to my daily life. Work life balance is hard to accomplish, but I feel like having friends who are also artists is really helpful to create that balance. Sometimes it’s hard to recognize when you’ve been in this mindset where all you’ve been doing is working, and you need people to pull you out of it. Being an artist doesn’t limit the amount of time you’re working, it gives you the freedom to work whenever you want, but it also means that you’re probably going to be up all night finishing those last details of a project. A lot of people are afraid of having a flexible schedule, but I’ve learned to embrace it. Making a to-do list everyday is really helpful for me. At times it can seem like the work is never ending, but in reality, I’m just working towards my own success and investing in myself.
Balance is something everyone strives for. It’s a hard thing to find because it takes time, and with the unpredictability of being an artist, it’s especially hard. I personally find balance to be a bit overrated. As someone with a flexible schedule, I would always put meeting up with friends over finishing a project that I could finish afterwards. I feel like balance for me is having not equal time for work and life, but enough time for everything I want or need to do. I feel like I’ll always have to spend a bit more time working though. Being an artist means that my work isn’t confined into a 9-5 on weekdays, it’s more so a 24/7 job.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
As an artist, I believe I view the world from a unique perspective. I see possibilities behind everyday things and get inspired to make art by everything, whether that be a color or the way the light reflects off something. I also view materials from a different perspective than most. Where someone sees a sweater or a tapestry, I’m thinking about how it was made, with what techniques, how it was dyed that color, and how I could recreate that object. My brain is always looking for new ideas and it makes everyday life so much more interesting. In my artistic practice, I crochet, knit, sew, quilt, spin, and embroider. Most of the art I make is thought about in extreme detail. Every color, material, process, and motif has a specific reason for being there and adds to the meaning of the piece. While my art generally has this cutesy look to it, there’s so much more to it when you take a closer look. I explore themes of girlhood, memory, sustainability, and current events in my art. Recently, I’ve been trying to contradict the idea of works having a front and back by making both sides equally important, and I think that’s something a lot of people don’t think about, they believe the back of a work isn’t meant to be seen. I’m very excited to explore this idea further and really think about how we can change how we display art if both the front and back sides are important to be seen.

It all started when I learned to crochet by watching YouTube videos. Now I know a lot more fiber techniques and I’m even making my own yarn. Right now I’m working towards my BFA in studio arts with a specialization in fiber & material studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I’m experimenting with new techniques, learning the basics of being a professional artist, and discovering who I am as an artist. It took me nearly 2 years of college to really find my artistic style and recognize the techniques I liked to use in my art. It’s hard to recognize what you want, especially when people or trends are influencing you to do the “trendy” thing in order to get anywhere in the art world. It’s hard to step away from all of that and think to yourself, “the right audience will find my art, I’m making it for them.” It took a lot of courage for me to accept that progress is always happening, even if it’s slow at times.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If my best friend was coming to visit, we’d have to hit all the great artsy places! First we’d need some caffeine in our systems, preferably from a place near the museum district so we could look at those afterwards. We could go to La La Land and cross the street to The Cottage Shop to thrift for a bit before heading to the art galleries. Then we’d head over to the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft to see the current artists showing work and take a little walk in the craft garden to see the fibers growing. After that, we could cross the street to see the current exhibition at the Lawndale Art Center. If we were still up for it, we could check out the art on display at the Menil Collection and the Rothko Chapel.

Another day, we’d take a few hours to visit the Museum of Fine Arts. We would walk through all the halls and stop at all of our favorite pieces. We’d also find our way to see Yayoi Kusama’s Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity, where we’d be immersed in her infinity room for a couple minutes taking in the beauty.

If we were ever in need of a late night latte, we could go to Agora, and if we needed a late night snack, YoYo’s Hotdog would be the place to go.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There’s so many people that impacted my journey as an artist that deserve a shoutout. Without the people around me, I wouldn’t have had the courage to pursue my dreams. First, I want to thank all my former (and present) art teachers, especially those who supported my choice to pursue an art career from the beginning. I’ve grown so much and looking back, I realized that without those two art teachers in high school, I probably wouldn’t have even considered following my passion to pursue art. It helped to see others in the art field, succeeding and doing what they loved, especially in a society where most people’s career choice is based on the yearly salary. These teachers made me realize that taking the risk to become an artist would pay off.

Secondly, I would’ve given up trying to be an artist if it wasn’t for my friends’ support every step of the way. Having a few really good friends is a great support system when trying to break into the art world. And in a world where it’s risky to pursue your passion, it’s good to have people to lean on, especially those that have seen you grow for years. Even though most of my friends don’t live close to me anymore, we can still support each other’s growth from afar.

Lastly, the fiber arts community as a whole is so lovely. Knowing that there are others doing what I’m doing and supporting each other is so special. Seeing other fiber artists around me in classes and online, working with the same materials as I am and keeping fiber arts alive is really important to me. Although the community is mainly online, it’s really inspiring to see what other fiber artists around the world are doing and how we’re all working towards spreading awareness of the art we love.

Website: https://zoe-gunter.webflow.io/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crochetedthingsbyzoe

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-gunter-018830313/

Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/crochetedthingsbyzoe