Threads of Resilience: Queer stories from Rural Landscapes aims to create a series of textile/photographic works using photos taken between 2018 and 2023. This grant would support the initial stages of the project by providing the necessary equipment. Since leaving graduate school in 2018, limited access to materials has hindered my textile-based art practice. I seek funding for a large format ink-jet printer, materials for a fabric table, and more printable fabric. The project will produce ten new works exploring scales and techniques, incorporating natural materials, thread illusions, and collage/quilting to queer the photographic frame. This grant would enable the creation of this series and empower future projects documenting queer life in the rural American South.
Amber Imrie grew up off-the-grid in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, leaving high school at sixteen. They graduated with honors and received the Excellence in Sculpture award from UC Berkeley. During their MFA at Stanford University, their innovative photographic-textile works earned them the Murphy Cadogan award in 2017 and the Anita Squires Fowler Award in 2018. Amber founded Venison Magazine and Camp Venison to foster artistic communities before joining The Alternative Art School in 2020 as a founding team member and teacher alongside curator Nato Thompson. Amber currently resides on the outskirts of Winslow, Arkansas.