Budding Vermont textile artist debuts first exhibition
Thrifted garments woven with plant fibers, carefully sculpted patchworks that look like mossy growths creeping out of the wall.
Such is the work created by Sienna Martz, whose first solo exhibition, “Echoes of Earth,” is running at the Soapbox Arts gallery in Burlington through the end of September.
Martz describes her exhibition as an exploration of nature’s adaptability and how, over time, it asserts its dominance to erase human imprints and restore equilibrium.
“Echoes of Earth,” made up of 26 pieces, took Martz 13 months to complete from conception to creation. She designed the pieces to fit on five walls in the gallery.
Martz has been a practicing artist for 10 years but just this past year was able to take the leap and work as an artist full time. Her style centers on vegan, textile-based wall art that can be found in dozens of countries. Her Instagram following of almost 80,000 has helped Martz gain even more exposure.
It’s fitting that Martz’ first solo exhibition arrived in a state that melds well with her artistic vision.
“Vermont is such a beautiful state,” said Martz, a Readsboro resident. “You know, it’s a small population. A lot of the land is protected. There are no billboards. It’s just so green and lush. It brings me a lot of artistic and spiritual energy. When I’m super fried or stressed in my art studio, I will stop and I will go take a hike with my dog on a property and go swim in the river.”
Martz made her way to Vermont four years ago after growing up in Los Angeles and the suburbs of New York City, then attending art school at Temple University in Philadelphia. Her work is inspired by the natural world, which she has been able to immerse herself in since moving to Vermont.
In recent years her art has evolved to hold an activist stance. The aim is “inviting viewers to reimagine the role of art in society and positioning my work not just as an object of beauty but as a catalyst for cultural transformation and sustainable thinking,” Martz said.
She is an eco-conscious artist and uses plant fibers and vegan, recycled or secondhand materials. The textile industry glamorizes animal-derived materials like wool, leather and cashmere, Martz said. Since becoming vegan eight years ago, she said she’s strived to avoid using animal products in her artwork.
Along with using vegan materials, Martz said she stays conscious of waste. In 2015, the global textile and clothing industry produced an estimated 92 million tons of waste and over 1.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions, according to a widely cited report by the Global Fashion Agenda and Boston Consulting Group. Both those estimates were projected to increase by over 60 percent by 2030.
So, Martz thrifts old clothing as materials for a lot of her artwork to help lessen her waste footprint.
She thinks it is special to bring into her art “garments that have a history of previous users and physically and spiritually weaving together the history of these individuals into an art piece.”
She recalls always having creativity in her life. Her father is also a sculptor, painter and musician, and her mother worked within the fashion magazine industry, she said.
“They nurtured my creative side and really encouraged me,” she said. “So, I think it’s something that I’ve wanted to do since I was very young.”
Recently, Martz watched a home video taken when she was around 5 years old.
“It was my sister’s birthday party, and they were going around to each kid saying, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ And I said, ‘artist,’” she said, “I hadn’t seen this footage in a very long time, and it really surprised me. I was like, ‘Oh, my goodness.’”
(Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship.)