Sage Mend is a textile artist and weaver from Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Raised in Southern Appalachia, fiber techniques such as quilting were learned from family. Beginning with quilting, Mend translates this textile technique into the piecing of various class and historical styles.
The use of fabric and yarn materials from stores such as Dollar General, Joann Fabrics, and Walmart became 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 investigated and heightened, solidifying their presence in weaving and textile history. This solidification, in their indulgent materiality, forms a new unicorn lineage.
Contradictions embedded in American life are expressed in weaving, as the base structures of textiles are formed by thousands of contradicting, intertwining warp and weft threads. Structures and materials are investigated and used as metaphor to address larger 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.