Tess Murdoch

Tess Murdoch focuses on research-based as well as intuitive methods of healing through the processes of painting, hand-dyeing, weaving, embroidery, and machine knitting. Murdoch encourages a sensorial dialogue between the viewer and her work which further activates it and she hopes to continue to explore this activation through more realms of design and collaboration. She is currently focusing on color forecasting and consulting while championing localized, regenerative circular economies. In October 2020, she will become the first maker-in-residence at the newly founded Toward the Lake Artist Residency, in Sackets Harbor, New York.

Colorscapes, Spring 2020

Colorscapes is a body of work rooted in the philosophy of responsible sourcing first, altering second. Tess Murdoch hand-dyes donated and/or repurposed textiles and sources only raw or donated materials to weave and machine knit into new materials to compose with. She intuitively edits these materials down into color palettes that will become mini or large scale compositions. These compositions become tactile color cards for the viewer to interact with more intimately through encouraged touching, looking, and listening. Hand-stitching actively binds all the materials together. She has found healing in the meditative repetition of stitching coupled with the joy of improvisational mark-making during this time of sheltering-in-place. The evidence of the hand is omnipresent in each piece, no matter the scale. Murdoch is ultimately trying to ask questions about the world around her and assess what her place is in it through the abstraction of form, color, and texture.

Instagram - @tess_murdoch
Website - tessmurdoch.com
Email - tessmurdoch@newschool.edu