Sage Mend is a weaver and textile artist from Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Raised in Southern Appalachia, fiber techniques such as quilting were learned from family. Beginning with quilting, Mend translates the textile technique of piecing into the physical and conceptual piecing of various class and historical styles within her works.
The use of fabric and yarn materials from stores such as Dollar General, Joann Fabrics, and Walmart become key components of her practice when combining woven structures with materials. A browse through Dollar General leads to velvet coloring pages, inspiring the use of black chenille in weavings. Such novelty materials reference contradictory aspects of the American middle class, such as cheap and alluring. Through structural and material exploration on the loom, ideas of the contemporary unicorn as an icon for the American Dream are also investigated and heightened, solidifying their presence in weaving and textile history. This solidification, in their indulgent materiality, forms a new unicorn lineage.
As the base structures of textiles are formed by thousands of contradicting, intertwining warp and weft threads, contradictions embedded in American life are expressed in her weavings. Structures and materials are investigated and used as metaphor to address larger personal and societal issues.
Sage Mend completed her MFA and Post-baccalaureate degrees from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2020, specializing in Fiber and Material Studies.