Karin Soderholm’s “See, I am doing a new thing”
(Image courtesy of the artist)
A Denver-based fiber artist specializing in the traditions of boro cloth (Japan) and kantha cloth (India), Karin Soderholm is inspired by the raw plant materials that make up fiber works. In this indigo textile, she invites us to contemplate the intimate work of God in the everyday. Using a highly acidic bath of indigo leaves, she dyed a segment of linen fabric to create a blue-black textured night sky reminiscent of what you might encounter on a late-night hike in the Colorado mountains. The evening sky is lit up by hand-stitched stars in a bursting fractal pattern. Each stitch is connected, each thread reminiscent of our interconnectedness.
The title alludes to Isaiah 43:19: “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” (NIV). When the world feels vast and hostile and the mundane begins to close in, Soderholm’s work reminds us to pause and attune, to stop and behold the goodness of God’s creation. God’s presence in the wilderness is abundant, guiding us with each thread, lighting our path in the darkness.
