USUE Press Release
Price, UT – An exhibition of colorful handcrafted rugs, entitled Here and There: Distance Told in Loops, by Price fiber artist, Charlie Dalton, will be on view from September 4 through September 27, at Gallery East in the Central Instruction Building on the campus of Utah State University Eastern.
Dalton is a fiber artist who follows only a few simple principles as needed. With a traditional rug hook, Charlie creates his fiber pieces by pulling wool strips through a linen backing and arranges them like lines of candy ribbon.
Dalton, who in another world taught Spanish, is a Kentucky Colonel who lives in Price, Utah. While teaching at the University of the South in Tennessee, he met his wife, Evey, a geologist.
After spending 15 years in the classroom, lessons learned from his mother-in-law have taken him in a different direction, though his love of teaching has never waned. He finds inspiration in color and repetition, is fascinated by Alma Thomas, and his favorite thing to hook is the reflection in a dog’s eye. Leading workshops, like at Sauder Village, or online through the In the Studio group, teaching is an integral part in Dalton’s hooking practice and ethos.
In this digitally paced world, where fast fashion and social trends drive a thoughtlessness in the use of a variety of material, a cornerstone in Charlie’s practice is the up-cycling of discarded clothing. Trying to breath fresh life back into these wool work clothes from past lives is a mixture of treasure hunt and waking Frankenstein’s monster.
Since these types of clothes are not easy to find anymore, it is a struggle to find the right values and shades “off the rack,” making it necessary to supplement his pile using dyes and other techniques in order to round out his chosen palette.
Dalton’s abstractions find their origins in nature and his environment. He is interested in invoking emotion through the slow movement of color throughout his pieces. Circles and squares in tandem with line and perspective are the nouns and verbs that he uses to produce his textured vision.
The exhibit, Here and There, will be on view through September 27. Students, faculty, staff and the public are invited. The gallery is located in the Central Instruction Building.
The gallery is free and open to the public during the academic year.
Gallery East’s Fall 2023 hours are Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m.– 5:00 p.m.
Closed weekends, and holidays.
For questions, contact Noel Carmack at 435-613-5241 or by email at noel.carmack@usu.edu.