jamie lea bertsch

cast on / bound off is an ongoing piece made by unraveling cherished fabrics, personal belongings, and previous artworks. The resulting strands are then spun and obsessively knit into a patched and continuously growing installation. cast on / bound off is a record of multiple transformations, personal memory, and honest effort—becoming a memoir of the items that comprise it. The workhonors the humble stitch with a fanfare; fantastically recording the passage of time and multiple eras held within the materials. Detailed and laborious stitches represent the variations of process, mending a history of personal thoughts, memories and intuitive decisions. The slow buildup of layers interrupts functionality, and question the thresholds of comfort. cast on / bound off is at once luxurious and absurd, meticulous and rash, obsessive and banal.

In cast on / bound off, every stitch justified its existence and every color located its place within the work. I found my way there by hand: by making, un-making, ripping, knotting and knitting each piece back together until it located a new form. cast on / bound off contains the time of its making. Each fiber has been undone and reworked; a concentration of the many stitches, knots and layers before — a work, within a work, within a work — good to the last drop.

JAMIE LEA BERTSCH  

»»» www.theremnants.tumblr.com  

»»» www.bellafigura.com/designers/bertsch.html

MFA : Fiber, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
2011- 2012

MA  : Fiber, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
2009-2011

BFA : Graphic Design, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
2004-2009

BFA :  2D, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
2004-2009

International Studies University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point 
Mae Sai, Thailand Winterim 2005-2006

EXPERIENCE 

University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Associate Lecturer
Fibers 2012-current 

University of Wisconsin-  Milwaukee, Teacher of Record
Intro to Fibers 2011-2012

University of Wisconsin-  Milwaukee, Teacher of Record
2D Concepts 2010-2011

University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee, Project Assistant 2009 

Bella Figura, Letterpress Designer 2008-current 

Design Center, Graphic Designer 2006-2008

GROUP EXHIBITS 

2012

with strands unfurled, Flag Installation, Lillstreet Art Center, Chicago, Illinois

cast on / bound off, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Inova Art Gallery, Peck School of the Arts, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

2011

Heap : new work by Joseph & Jamie Bertsch, Scarabocchio Art Museum
Stevens Point, Wisconsin

MARN Salon II – Fibers, Milwaukee Artist Resource Network
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 

Emerging Artist Exhibition, Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts Brookfield, Wisconsin 

MONOPRINT 2011 : a gathering of artists, Scarabocchio Art Museum
Stevens Point, Wisconsin 

MA/MFA Exhibition I, Inova/Arts Center Gallery
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 

2010

Cutting Edge: A Celebration of Fibers, Textile Arts Center
Brooklyn, New York

2009 

Repetition, Inova/Zelazo, The Mary L. Nohl Galleries
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 

Monoprint 2009- A Gathering of Artists, Schneider Gallery
Stevens Point, Wisconsin 

Young Artists Exhibition, Center for the Visual Arts Gallery
Wausau, Wisconsin

9th Annual National Small Prints Exhibition, Creede Arts Council
Creede, Colorado

BFA Senior Thesis Exhibition, Edna Carlsten Gallery
Stevens Point, Wisconsin

Body of Work Selected, Art Among Us, West Bend Mutual Insurance Company
West Bend, Wisconsin

2008 

Juried Student Show, Carlsten Gallery, Stevens Point, Wisconsin

22nd Parkside National Small Print Exhibition, Kenosha, Wisconsin

Selected Works, Triptophonic Studios King, Wisconsin

Paper & Stitch Gallery, curator Brittni Wood, Jacksonville, Florida

Domino Magazine

2007 

Solo Show, Current Work Generations Coffee House, Theinsville, Wisconsin

East Side Open Market vendor, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Bag Revolution, Public Art Work

Juried Student Show, Edna Carlsten Gallery, Stevens Point, Wisconsin

SOLO EXHIBITS

Recent Work; Coffee Corner,  Kewaskum Wisconsin

Patterns of Memory; Noel Fine Art Center, Stevens Point, Wisconsin

From the Kitchen Table; Dreyfus University Center, Stevens Point, Wisconsin

This from That;  ArtsBash! Exhibition, Stevens Point, Wisconsin

Remnants; Schneider Student Gallery, Stevens Point, Wisconsin