Unbuttoned

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Telling America’s Stories Through Fiber Art

Marie Bergstedt is an 80-year-old American multimedia artist based in San Francisco who specializes in fiber art portraits. Growing up in Vicksburg, Michigan, Bergstedt was shuffled back and forth between her young birth mother and a foster home. In the absence of a traditional family structure and as a means to escape her unhappy childhood, Bergstedt learned to work with her hands to sew, crochet, and knit. These skills allowed her to earn an income, as well as express her interest in people and families. It was during her childhood that Bergstedt discovered her desire to become an artist.
As an adult, Bergstedt married, had a daughter, and taught kindergarten. She continued studying various art mediums, and at the end of a college art class, her teacher remarked, “You have missed your calling. You must study art for the rest of your life.” Bergstedt knew that was true. From that moment on, she took art classes and attended workshops for several years in addition to working full-time and being a wife and mother. In 1979, Bergstedt and her family moved from Michigan to San Francisco, where she continued to study drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, and art history. Her husband encouraged her to study photography, so she took photography classes at Wright State University and San Francisco Art Institute. During this time, Bergstedt exhibited hand-colored photography prints and designed clothing and jewelry in addition to working as a development director for a non-profit organization and raising her daughter. Although Bergstedt was learning new art mediums in her courses, she always incorporated the knitting, crocheting, and hand-stitching techniques she learned as a child. In 2006, she enrolled in fiber sculpture classes that allowed her to integrate her art skills into meaningful statements about life and societal issues in America.

After Bergstedt’s marriage dissolved, she described herself as “sad and spiritless.” However, she persevered and continued towards her goal of becoming a full-time artist in her sixties by living frugally and using upcycled materials in her artwork. Bergstedt continues to use the crocheting, knitting, embroidering, and other sewing skills she learned during her turbulent childhood to produce her portraits. She also uses friends and family members as her subjects to represent broader societal issues in America, such as homelessness, health problems, and environmental concerns.

Bergstedt draws inspiration for her multimedia fiber art from her friends and family around the world. She uses people she knows to represent something bigger in her artwork. “I feel like I’m still being the kind of person I was when I was growing up, and that is looking for people and what they represent. I’m not like them, but I really respect what they represent and how they look in their body posture. I enjoy celebrating the different kinds of people and their different stories."
Often finding inspiration for her multimedia fiber projects in her Midwestern family members’ expressions, Bergstedt uses this moment captured of her sister Vicky at a family reunion in Michigan, showing surprise and disapproval when her grandchildren suddenly jumped into a swimming pool. Bergstedt is currently translating her sister’s facial expression into a multimedia portrait using a combination of painting, embroidery, crocheting, and sewing, titled "What?" This piece symbolizes the uncertain state of American society. “It’s like every day there’s a new surprise or shocking news that makes you say, ‘What?’”
“I use a lot of crocheting, knitting, and embroidering. Those are things I learned when I was a small child. I had a bad life. I never thought of it as an escape, but I know now that it is a very calming thing to repeat, repeat and repeat.”
– Marie Bergstedt
Bergstedt has been invited to show her artwork at numerous exhibits across the globe. “I’ve always been the kind of person who does the Midwestern sort of thing, but yet I have all these international connections. I feel very honored that I’ve been able to travel a lot.”
Hover over the pin drops to see where Marie Bergstedt's artwork has been exhibited.
Bergstedt’s subjects are typically friends and family members whose expressions and postures inspire her work. It is through these portraits and sculptures that Bergstedt shares the experiences of her loved ones and her own stories of life in America, revealing its societal issues. She unbuttons these stories one stitch at a time.
Ripples
Wool, rayon, cotton, wire and buttons. New crochet, knitting and buttonwork over wire armature, combined with recycled fulled sweater knitted by the artist during her teen years. 25"H x 14"W x 23"D | 2010
2020 Vision: Keeping Six Feet Apart in Chaos
Hand stitching, applique, quilting, acrylic paint, dye, and buttons on silk, cotton, hemp and non-woven interfacing with acrylic stuffing and manufatured felt backing. | 66"H x 53"W x 3"D | 2021
Gentle Men on the Street
Hand stitching , embroidery, knitting and crochet using cotton, polyester, nylon, recycled clothing and eco-felt, with buttons. Mounted over needlepoint canvas with eco-felt backing and wooden stretcher frames.
56"H x 51"W x 4"D | 2020
Summer
Cotton, mohair, angora, buttons, needlepoint canvas. Manufactured felt backing, Crochet, knitting and hand stitching. 40"H x 12.5"W x 1.5"D | 2012
FIT
Wool, rayon, cotton, acrylic, silk, chenille and buttons over needlepoint canvas. Hand knitting, crochet and stitching.
58"H x 41"W x1.5"D | 2018
“I’m definitely made in America. I love where I live and my past. It’s been very enriched by a family of people across the world. They make me more American in a way.”

– Marie Bergstedt