About
Artist Statement
I am inspired to create art that is symbolic of nature and personal experiences that deeply touch my heart and soul.
For me, creating art is centering and helps to integrate the world I live in and through integration transformation takes place. Meaning and beauty are created through an improvisational playfulness with the art materials.
Creativity and integration are central to my art, just as they have been central to my life and work as a music therapist/music teacher.
I love working with fiber (yarn and fabric).
For more than 100 years, generations of women in my family have worked with fiber. Working with fiber is in my blood and I feel a connection to my ancestors when I use their scissors and other materials for creating fiber art.
-Jamie Blumenthal
Bio
Creativity has shaped my life for as long as I can remember. As a child, I was drawn to both music and visual art, and those passions have guided me ever since. After more than 40 years as a music therapist—work that showed me how deeply the arts support healing—I found myself increasingly drawn to fiber art as a personal, expressive practice.
Over the past decade, I’ve immersed myself in weaving and fiber techniques, studying at Mendocino College, learning through workshops, and exploring the medium in my studio. Weaving has become a meditative way for me to express emotion and meaning through color, texture, and pattern.
Community is an important part of my artistic life. I teach weaving through local arts programs and have previously served on the board of the Redwood Guild of Fiber Arts.
My work has been shown regionally and beyond, including exhibitions at Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Healdsburg Center for the Arts, Graton Gallery, Art at the Source, Sonoma County Art Trails, and the international Tapestry of Spirit exhibition in Ontario, Canada.
I continue to be inspired by the healing power of creativity and the way fiber art allows me to transform personal experience into something tactile and meaningful.