This week’s guest is the American multi-media artist Sydney Swisher whose work on fabric creates a unique dimension to weaving photography and digital art with textiles. Her tapestries explore memory, materiality, and machine intelligence as she references family photos to generate locations based on descriptions of childhood memories.  Sydney was born in Olney, Illinois in 1994 the oldest of three children; she has a sister Maci and brother Sutton. She comes from a family of educators; her mother Melissa was a kindergarten teacher and father Martin, a high school science teacher.  But it was a BA Mass Communications studying TV and Radio with a Minor in Art that Sydney chose at the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville from where she graduated in 2016. Her internships included graphic design while photographing weddings would help her develop her skills as a photographer. Sydney returned to Illinois to focus on her art career and her first solo exhibition, Fabricate, was shown in Peoria, Illinois in March 2024. She is currently preparing for a new show in Chicago this month. Sydney and her husband Nash live in Newton, Illinois with their two whippets.

Sydney’s website: https://www.sydneyswisher.com/
Instagram: @sydswisher https://www.instagram.com/sydswisher/
 
Sydney’s favorite women artists:
Jenna Gribbon
Megan Lewis
Holly Andres
Sasha Gordon
Njideka Akunyili Crosby 

Host: Chris Stafford
Produced by Hollowell Studios
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Email: hollowellstudios@gmail.com