Molly Owen
21 Years Old, She/Her
Molly Owen is a welsh textile artist who uses the punch-needle rugmaking technique, weaving, and felting to create abstract rugs. Molly uses materials such as yarn, wool, thread, and wool roving to create soft and tactile with these materials being familiar and welcoming due to their link to craft. Their artwork focuses on calm and safety within the senses of touch and sight, with their main focus on creating accessible art that people can freely touch and interact with opposed to the ‘Do Not Touch’ gallery etiquette.
Molly takes inspiration from the nature she was surrounded by in North Wales, their work emulates imagined landscapes and plant life from childhood memory. Growing up in Wales, Molly was surrounded by a variety of different ecosystems, particularly overgrown and abandoned buildings, and their transformation as the result of nature reclaiming the structures. The landscapes within the work are a collage of moments from growing up near the British coast and countryside, with the blending of places representative of the blurring of memory.
Currently, their main focus is within larger scale rugs and textile-based installations that transform and over grow a space, with an interest in how fine art textiles could be brought into learning settings such as childcare to enrich sensory development. Molly’s recent work explores how textiles can adapt as installations and interact with the outdoors, with them exploring installations within forests and how the work will grow within the natural environment.
