Grace Cormier produces works in a variety of artistic mediums, moving from one category to another without skipping a beat. Her repertoire ranges from paintings and sculpture to textile fiber art, jewelry and mixed media; each artform creatively conceived and equally well executed.
Cormier says that while she first began creating art as a little girl, that pursuit was put on pause when work consumed the majority of her time.
“But when I retired five years ago, my mind exploded with all of my ideas of what I always wanted to do, but I hadn’t had time. It’s not new ideas that I am experimenting with, it’s all the ideas I already had, and they finally have the time to come alive,” says Cormier. “There are still so many things I want to do.”
Born and raised in Poland until age 18, Cormier was adopted by her aunt in the U.S., and came to Florida in 1972, where her green card was waiting. She entered high school in Miami as a senior, despite not speaking a word of English.
She earned a degree in business administration from Miami Dade College and also studied at Allstate Construction College and Sheffield School of Interior Design, obtaining a general contractor license and an interior design license. Utilizing those skills, Cormier owned and operated a construction firm and worked as an interior design consultant.
After spending many years living on Long Island in New York and in New Brunswick, Canada, she longed for home, which, to her, was Florida. She returned in 2017 and continued working until she was able to retire, whereupon she could devote all her time to art.
“In most of my paintings, sculptures, textile fiber art and jewelry I use recycled silks, plant-dyed fabrics, repurposed vintage rusted drills or nails for unique patina dyeing, copper, brass, bamboo sheath, and gemstones from around the world,” says Cormier.
She notes that 99.9 percent of the fabrics she uses for textile artworks are recycled.
“I buy used clothing, linen and silk, all natural fibers, all hand dyed. I start with a single piece of fabric, and it builds from there.”
Cormier explains that she concentrates on the balance of color, shape and texture, working spontaneously while letting the piece come into being.
“Each piece is created with the desire to express the beauty in its simplicity and appreciation for imperfection of our nature.”
Cormier has recently begun creating textile pieces based on the Japanese aesthetics philosophy of Wabi-Sabi, which she says incorporates “rustic elegance, impermanence and imperfect simplistic beauty,” and Boro, based on the Japanese technique of mending or patching together old fabrics.
The results are unique artworks made from recycled natural fabrics, such as linen, silk and wool, hand sewn in a pleasing and balanced fashion. Cormier says she begins by pinning fabric pieces onto a solid backing, moving the pinned pieces around until the desired design is formed.
Her fiber art, she says, is not supposed to be functional; it is just something to look at.
An example is “Blue Heron,” a textile artwork of linen and silk. In it, a drawing of the heron is the main focus, to which she added five hand-cut layers of fabric, sewn to the backing in a layered design around the bird. She says this particular piece was very time consuming, taking more than 70 hours to complete.
Her textile art piece “Wabi Sabi Red #2,” hand-dyed flax linen stitched onto canvas, is currently on display at the Vero Beach Museum of Art in the juried exhibition, Treasure Coast Creates: A Tribute to Local Artists.
And a painting created for a Gallery 14 show last year combined colors and texture into a dimensional acrylic abstraction of the Ukrainian flag. She named it “Love and Peace,” as opposed to Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.”
Cormier also created a unique textile sculpture, “Runway Fashion,” using a base of chicken wire layered with recycled and repurposed elements to fashion a ‘dress’ with a bust and skirt that featured a decorative belt from a belly dancer’s costume, beads, ribbon, feathers, jewelry and vintage trinkets. That sculpture earned Third Place in the state-wide 100% Pure Florida Show at the 5th Avenue Gallery in Melbourne.
Another piece, “Lightning Thunder,” a mixed-media abstract of acrylic, ink and textured glaze, won First Place in the Life on Our Lagoon art show at the Eau Gallery in Melbourne to benefit the Marine Resources Council. A women’s face is visible in the central portion of the painting, which Cormier says gives it a spiritual connection, as she hadn’t painted the face intentionally.
Another sculpture, “Golden Bowl,” was one of only 50 selected out of 1,300 entries to be featured in the July 2023 edition of “Fiber Art Now” magazine. That unusual work was made from crushed paper, palm frond, a tree branch and vintage wire, and the paper mâché bowl was then painted with layers of acrylic to give it a metallic patina.
Cormier uses a variety of objects to incorporate in her jewelry pieces, such as natural gemstones, brass beads from Africa and Tibet, Baltic amber from Poland, vintage tribal jewelry from India, and amulets, thought to have positive energy.
“When I see something, I buy it and just hold onto it until I need it. I am a collector of natural beads and other objects, and when I make jewelry, I draw from that. I search all over the world for these, for my art,” she says.
Cormier is a member of the Vero Beach Art Club and Sebastian River Art Club. She exhibits her work at the SRAC Gallery and annual SRAC Art Show, the VBAC Gallery, the Eau Gallery in Melbourne, the annual Indian River Bird and Nature Show, and the Environmental Learning Center, where she will have a solo show next May. She also teaches classes at SRAC in textile art and jewelry making.
Photos by Joshua Kodis
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- Grace Cormier-Timmermann
