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Phyllis Stevens was a very talented, multi-faceted artist. We were most fortunate to have her as a member of Triangle Weavers and were most familiar with her beautiful woven tapestries. We are honored to have been gifted four of her tapestries by her daughter, Karen Fisher. These tapestries will be for sale at the Annual Fiber Arts Sale & Show on Saturday, November 2, 2024, with the proceeds going to support Triangle Weavers. Please read below to learn more about the life Phyllis Stevens led, as well as to view the tapestries that will be offered for sale.
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Born in 1931, in Washington, DC her family returned to Chicago where her parents had originally met in art school. Thereafter, most of her childhood was spent growing up in Detroit, Michigan. On Saturdays her mother took her to the Detroit Institute of the Arts where she learned every corner of the museum by heart. She loved the Diego Rivera murals, and regularly visited some of her favorite artists, El Greco, Rembrandt and Sheeler. Her family encouraged her in all artistic endeavors.
While an art student at Antioch College, she produced puppet shows and performed in modern dance productions. During this time she interned with Jan Yoors, a sculptor and tapestry artist in New York City. In the mid-1950s, Phyllis moved to New York City with her infant daughter and settled in the East Village. There she pursued her creative dreams, performing shadow puppet productions for CBS TV Network, as well as designing stage sets and lighting for Off Broadway theaters. To help support herself and her daughter, Phyllis worked professionally as a free-lance art director and graphic designer for New York publishing houses and advertising agencies. |
A life-long learner, she took classes at the Art Students League and the Academy of Realist Art, she travelled the world though she kept returning to the high desert of New Mexico. She was a very active member of the Salmagundi Club of New York. |
Phyllis mingled with other artists and creative thinkers in the Village, and later purchased a brownstone in the East Village that had been renovated for artists with ateliers on each floor. She painted in her atelier on the top floor under a large skylight. Not long after September 11, 2001, she moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to be near her daughter and family. In Chapel Hill she continued to paint in her new home studio and outdoors “en plein air.” During this time she returned to weaving tapestries, creating landscapes of her beloved Southwest and the natural world around her. Her work spans her lifetime of just short of nine decades.
Please see Phyllis Stevens’ website for more information:
Artwork Archive Site: https://www.artworkarchive.com/profile/phyllis-stevens
Website: https://www.phyllisstevens.org/
Photos of the four tapestries are shown below
Please see Phyllis Stevens’ website for more information:
Artwork Archive Site: https://www.artworkarchive.com/profile/phyllis-stevens
Website: https://www.phyllisstevens.org/
Photos of the four tapestries are shown below
Twilight Mesa (Mesa #5), Wool, 10.5" x 18.5"
Mesa #11, Wool, 14.5" x 19"
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Untitled, Wool, 12" x 17.5"
Bird of Prey, Wool 21" x 10.75"
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