The colorful canvases are textured with baking soda, cornstarch or sand, painted with acrylic and harmonized with weaving from local yarn, loomed with nails on the canvas.

A piece, Emily Carlquist says, “starts with wanting to put texture down on something and see what transpires.”

Then, she says, “I feel it for colors,” and from there it gains complexity and depth.

The Sequim artist’s work is on display this month Dandelion Botanical Company, 4681 Sequim-Dungeness Way. Most of the artwork is also for sale.

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen / Artist Emily Carlquist, seen here before one of her abstract multi-media pieces featuring acrylic paint on textured canvas with needle-woven local fiber warped on canvas, on display at Dandelion Botanical for the month of April.

Carlquist says at one point that she asked herself, “What is my unique voice to add something to the world of abstract art? And I realized it was fiber art.”

Interspersed with Carlquist’s larger abstracts are a few anomalous pieces and a number of small hanging sculptures, primarily made with kelp. Hung between the larger paintings to provide visual counterpoints, the small sculptures are not labeled.

“They are random kelp weavings that are just for fun,” she says.

Carlquist’s creations are varied and, according to Dandelion proprietor Kachi Cassinelli, deserve a close look.

“I feel like I could spend a lot of time with them,” Cassinelli says. “The colors are so saturated and the textures are so deep. They seem to reflect nature.”

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen / Spacious and light filled, Dandelion Botanical Company hosts month-long shows of local artists. Month of April Artist Emily Carlquist’s macrame woven on driftwood hangs to the right.

She says that the layers on the canvas bring to mind geological history and how the land wears away.

“Even the fabric seems to have layers. Looking side-wise the layers are like a cliff.”

Raised on art

Carlquist says that some of her pieces are evocative of Southern Utah, the landscape of her childhood, where she grew up surrounded by fiber artists.

“I was raised around a lot of artists,” Carlquist says. “[At a young age] I learned to sew, crochet and quilt.”

Carlquist learned techniques from other skilled people all her life, and says she took as many classes and workshops as possible, including from local weaver Cathy MacGregor.

In college, Carlquist worked and learned with people in Bolivia and the Dominican Republic, among others. In turn, she’s been teaching since high school, where she was a teacher’s assistant in art classes.

Carlquist now teaches at Five Acre School and says she may be giving classes at Dandelion Botanical Company in the future.

Sequim Gazette photoS by Emily Matthiessen The work of local fiber/multimedia artist Emily Carlquist is featured at Dandelion Botanical Company for the month of April. Carlquist stands between a couple of her large pieces with a kelp sculpture behind.

“I would love to get to the point where I offer mixed media workshops,” she says.

Carlquist also worked as a hair stylist for 18 years.

“I’ve always joked that it is a fiber art, too.”

Celebration on tap

For all her experience, the April exhibition at Dandelion is Carlquist’s first public show. It will culminate with a celebration/party from 3-6 p.m. on Saturday, April 29.

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen / A close-up of artist Emily Carlquist’s piece, “Desert Walls,” is evocative of the landscape of Southern Utah, where she grew up. This 15”x30” piece is made from beeswax encaustic over textured acrylic overlapped by weavings made with wool roving and cotton yarn,” explains the accompanying label.

Carlquist will have one painting “warped up to show the process.” She says she weaves the yarn in “tapestry-weaving style, with a needle” and plans to share that technique at the closing party.

Cassinelli welcomes other local artists to come in and talk to her about potentially exhibiting at Dandelion in the future. She requests digital images of the art, via their phone or a website. Open hours are 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Wednesday through Monday.

May’s artist will be photographer Donna Tomsula. Cassinelli said that her black and white photography from the 1970s “catches strange moments in time.”

Dandelion Botanical Company’s website lists current classes at dandelionbotanical.com.