Kayla Powers, Above Below Within

Summer Solstice 2022

Above Below Within is a selection of pieces that explore the interconnectedness and impermanence of life. The processes of foraging plants, dyeing yarn, weaving, quilting, and stitching ground me in the present moment through making. Working with natural materials heightens my awareness of the temporary nature of being. I bear witness to birth, growth, death, and decay as it exists on a human scale and I explore these processes through familiar forms like quilts and rocks.

The colors derived from roots, leaves, seeds, and flowers are, like their source material, reflections of time and place. They demonstrate ephemerality—delicate and fleeting. They represent the spiral of life and gesture toward our place in the family of things.

Kayla Powers (b. 1988) is a fiber artist living and working in the North End of Detroit, Michigan. Kayla creates ecologically focused textile art with the intention of exploring the common threads of our shared humanity. Her work has been exhibited in fine art galleries, a natural history museum, public parks, farms, and on the side of an old liquor store.

As a self-taught artist and a trained horticulturist, Kayla is interested in human ecology, craft traditions, and the interconnectedness of all beings. She seeks color in locally foraged plants in an ongoing exploration of time and place.

Kayla is currently pursuing an MFA in the Fiber Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art slated for graduation in 2023.