Margie Criner
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Margie Criner is an American artist born in Detroit in 1968. Her background in wood working, textile design, and graphics combine form with play to create sculpture within sculpture. In her recent work, she builds abstract exterior forms that house miniature illuminated narratives. She received a BS in Textile Design from Michigan State University in 1991 and has exhibited her work throughout the midwest. Criner currently works and resides in Chicago, Illinois.
I remember spending time in my father’s wood shop in the basement of our house, just outside Detroit. At about six years old, I snuck downstairs and made a walkie talkie out of a block of pine, a nail, and paint. It was my first
unsupervised attempt at using my father’s tools. I remember feeling nervous, but that was overridden by my desire to use my imagination to build something three dimensional, that was functional as a toy, on my own.
My art is rooted in design mixed with play. Through my work I reexamine perspectives, with an appreciation of the interconnectedness of all things living. With a background in textile design, graphic design, and wood working, my art combines a variety of materials. I invite the viewer to engage his or her own curiosity as conventional expectations are reshaped, distorted, or sometimes ignored.
When I complete a work, I often gain a better understanding regarding some aspect of myself and the world around me. The finished piece becomes my teacher, as themes revolve around the everyday, from waiting to dreaming, from commuting to vacationing. Parts of me I was unaware of suddenly become apparent. Subconscious doctrines enter consciousness as each piece gains a voice of its own.
