Moss Beach artist Kathleen Otley, best known for her picturesque fiber wall hangings, will be displaying new works at the Santa Cruz Art Center in an exhibit running from Feb. 6 through March 4, 1999.

The new works are "spirit masks" which incorporate natural findings such as porcupine quills, sponge mushrooms, palm fronds and bark, date stems and cow horn tips, with Otley's trademark weaving and knotting with yarns, and with her papermaking and wood-carving works.

"Every year I allow myself a period of time to really open up and just play in my studio," said the artist reflectively. "I follow my muse, an inner instinct, from one, step to the next on a work with no real preconception. I try to ignore the time factor, concerns about bills, production schedules, deadlines, etc., and let myself be as creative as I can possibly be. To me, this is a vacation."

Otley, a Los Angeles native and mainstay at the Half Moon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival, has been creating her wallhangings for more than 25 years and has become an acknowledged leader in the field. She combines age-old off-loom and tapestry techniques with a flair for the unusual in contemporary wall design.

Her base materials are the finest New Zealand fleece, spun into nubby yams and dyed by Otley, herself. The yarns are woven into a circular or square frame or into a triptych, creating either a striking pattern or a picture in yarn, perhaps a landscape or seascape. Into the yarn picture, Otley incorporates leather, shells, metals, beads or feathers for additional character.

Otley has received many honors and awards for her work, including selection by a national jury of gallery owners and inclusion in "Profiles: Who's Who in American Crafts," registered in the Library of Congress.

At Christmas time, in 1993, Otley was invited by the White House and the Smithsonian Institute to create an ornament for the presidential tree. To do so, she wrapped fine white willow twigs with silver, gold and black metallic threads in a horn-of-plenty shape. From the First Tree, the ornament became part of a Smithsonian exhibit in New York City.

Otley was also selected as one of 10 working women artists in the country to exhibit her work as part of a 20th anniversary Retrospective Art Show with the 1994 National Women's Music Festival.

Otley's woven constructions enhance any decor - traditional, contemporary, southwest or ultra-modern. They are part of many corporate art collections, including those of Pacific Bell, AT&T, Apple Computer, Stanford Medical Center, ABC Television and the City of San Francisco.

This article is from the February 3, 1999 Half Moon Bay Review and is reproduced with permission from the Review.