Nick Fagan
My name is Nick Fagan. I am sculptor and I guess a fibers artist now based in Virginia, Michigan and England, so kind of all over the place. I am also the head of the metals department at Oxbow School of Art, an artist residency. I got started with art actually from a young age, but I did have this teacher in middle school who really saw something in me, and kind of convinced my parents that I should really pursue art for my whole career and life...
Hand Sewed Repurposed Crochet Blankets and Moving Blankets
72 x 72 x 2 in
NF : ... I think some basic things to know about me and my work is first where I come from, I come from a family of thrifters. My grandmother was a huge collector of lamps and she would always give you a lamp at the end of every kind of like visit and then my father he’s a big collector of pollos from like universities so he collects those, and so when I started to make work, I already had these collections of objects that I just kind of kept going; it was kind of like an inherited reality of what my family did and it was just something that was natural. We need to have and collect and it’s been kind of this whole process of collecting and seeing and finding different objects that I find value in, or charge in.
Hand Sewed Repurposed Welding Jackets and Paint Mixers Coat 24 x 36 x 1 in
Hand Sewed Repurposed Crochet Blankets and Moving Blankets
48 x 60 x 2 in
NF : Sometimes I don’t know if like I don’t know what the source or why I want something and so I have to have it there. Meditate with it for a while. There is the sense of maybe like a narrative or this history or charge that I see the object I collect, like the moving blankets or crochet blankets, where there’s a sense of the hand, sense of a person behind it, like this narrative of like who is this? Why did they make this, or why did you get a cut or scar or bump. A lot of the objects have that kind of human touch to it, this kind of a charge, spiritualist charge to it...
Hand Sewed Repurposed Work Shirt Made By A Friend
18 x 24 x 1 in
NF : A lot of times I use these objects as a way to my own opinions or my own feelings through them, kind of giving it a narrative that’s already there of a bump or scar, or the handmade to be able to express myself better so something such as a crocheted blanket, the sincerity of that, the honesty, the gift of it it gives me the sense of opening up, versus the moving blankets, which is pretty cold and hard and exterior. You know the scars are shown there and it’s kind of a closing off, also so there’s duality like of the materials. There is also something about the historic nature of those things the sense of this history of people and of objects that doesn’t really get recorded as often You know you go to a museum you may see a throne of a great ruler, but I think more interesting is what’s left behind the common person, what’s left behind that’s important enough not to throw away, but to be kept and collected and kind of given new life.
Hand Sewed Repurposed Crochet Blankets and Moving Blankets
30 x 40 x 2 in
NF : So a lot of the work is kind of a curation of that, myself, the object, and the history, trying to find a balancing before it. I think the real magic of what its gonna be comes more, than just say like a crocheted or a moving blanket it is kind of the ration and transformation of fusing the materials together. This kind of process that you are making it a little bit more special, taking more time in the context of putting it in a structure or on a white wall, allowing people to really see those marks left behind so you know there’s a spiritual kind of this ritualistic thing that happens that really transforms into something more special than it already is and it gives the viewer time to really appreciate those small things, and appreciate the people behind those things...
Hand Sewed Repurposed Work Shirt from My Father
24 x 36 x 1
NF : I hand sew all the work together and so a lot of times it’s a big meditative process, so sometimes I won’t really know why I’m attracted to these objects. You know there’s something maybe like a spiritual or a charge to them, but I don’t know why they need to be put together but through the meditation of the sewing hours and hours and hours and focusing on that your mind kind of figures out why you decided these materials are important or what the images is and why is it important for me a lot of times the imagery on that is kind of a biographical moment of my life. You know, questioning some feelings I’m having or disability or questioning my mental health, a lot of times it starts off with basic emotions of frustration, anger, happiness, and then kind of splits and divides into more focus things such as like my relationship with my father or you know my relationship with bipolar or the inheritance of some kind of addictions and things of that nature. So I really don’t know kind of what the journey is gonna take me on until the end until I really just see through the whole works itself. And sometimes you know even when I’m finished, I don’t really even know, I have to let it marinate and sit and really find reason through just looking at it after it’s all over.
Hand Sewed Repurposed Moving Blankets and Childhood Sheets
20 x 26 x 1.5 in
NF : A big fundamental for me is drawing, sometimes I don’t use it for sketching ideas but more It’s a practice that I’ve done my whole life. With my disabilities growing up. I had a very very hard time with trying to express myself through writing or even verbally, took a long time for that, but the one thing I could always account for is drawing and just sketching ideas or people out, emotions out mostly, and then it started with kind of figuring out kind of cartoon characters and making cartoon characters who expresses certain emotions I was feeling or a certain way. And I continued that throughout, it doesn’t really you know come out sometimes but I think it’s just important to some of the main core objects or images that I make, such as Garfield or the pint glass, or the jug, which I see like he’s narrative bodies of myself.
Hand Sewed Repurposed Sleeping Bags
147 x 147 x 1 in
NF : I use these images, kind of as a lexicon to use for my narratives in the imagery of my work, when it comes to out of the form it takes its real exploration of where I am. Sometimes it’s material that I feel like I must use, such as found object other times it’s an exploration on kind of the form it can take in sculptural or fiber or in painting of some sort so there’s always this kind of play or exploration that I have that I couldn’t go back in or through. you know, trying to find the best tool and form to make the work and that can be in sculpture of wood and carving in plaster and fibers all the stuff is kind of open to me and it’s really not that’s not specialty sort of it’s more what is needed to express myself best...
Hand Sewed Repurposed Crochet Blankets Doilies and Moving Blankets 30 x 40 x 1.5 in
NF : In my studio you can see the different ways working usually I focus on one piece at a time, but you can definitely see kind of the sculptural elements on one side and then you have the fibers on another and it’s pretty messy but I enjoy the mess because that’s where you kind of see things that you would regularly see if it was organized and clean so maybe like an old piece of a chair can be used in a fibers or you know this fiber could be used in the sculpture, so it’s kind of this big smorgasbord going on in there, but it’s important to me to have that space like that so those objects and kind of those sketches can really marinate in each other, radiate, and reflect kind of the whole idea of having the studio at the time.
Repurposed Moving Blankets and Wood 72 x 168 x 72 in
NF : I’ve also traveled a lot so my studio has changed over time and it’s kind of nice because you build bodies of work on the location of where you are really seeing what’s important to the community, you know what is the thrifted items that are left behind or you know what is the kind of sculptural elements you can find around the place and what are the people talking about the community in general? It gives me a sense of kind of where my state is where the state of the people are that when I make work my time in England, you know the cold and all these kind of questions about immigrants and things for coming-up. It was very very different than in Michigan where it’s a little bit more laissez-fairer and a lot more kind of homemade stitching and quietness. And this does affect me and my work so I think every time I start a new series, location is important and gives me insight on where I am and what I’m doing and the questions...
Hand Sewed Repurposed Doilies and Moving Blankets
24 x 36 x 2 in
NF : I’m questioning myself about you know it could be about my disability and bipolar and the ups and downs or questioning my masculine in the sense of success through kind of past elders of mine and where do I stack up with them and is it even worth stacking up, or with my disability in the sense of language and the normalization of how I can get through the days without being able to write well. I try to counter kind of these big bigger ideas that are kind of emotionally draining with humor kind of a bouncing or duality between the two you know and I not want to feel sorry or woe, is me in the work, as much as just kind of a part of that’s life you know showing the bouncing that I’m dealing with things, but I’m still happy and I’m still kind of part of the language of fun.
Repurposed Crochet Blankets and Wood
43 x 144 x 43 in
NF : I think it’s very important to just have fun especially when you’re dealing with kind of larger topics that you can’t really tackle yourself or even the work sometimes can’t tackle. It’s kind of a romantic. I do feel like myself as a romantic in a sense of like working and making art and especially attachment to objects, the sense of kind of building personal relationships in holding on, you know if there was a fire I would probably not take the laptop or money and just take kind of a couple of blankets and photos and some artwork from friends.
Hand Sewed Repurposed American Flags 60 x 108 x 1/8 in
NF : Right now I’m at work has been transporting a lot. I’ve been staying with my parents for a while and kind of going on this personal journey of these objects that have been passed down to me through my family and kind of things that my parents kept and trying to document them this way of flattening an image and material and really getting a sense of what’s left behind, the scratches and bruises in a really simplistic way instead of a maximalist way. I like to call flattening of things. In curation so you really get a good sense of an object , you know small little areas become more important than what’s left over...
Wood and Auto Paint 48 x 60 x 24 in