My work explores the unspoken and taboo topics connected to my life as a woman and a caregiver. By using traditional fiber techniques, like hand knitting, my hope is to challenge and change some of the cultural narratives that attempt to confine these identities. My recent practice incorporates performance based and interactive work where the connection between my body, the concept, the fiber, and the audience can begin to merge as one. I utilize video and photography to document the honest process from start to finish so that the story becomes a part of the art. Humanity is reflected in each piece so that every person feels welcome to engage in an open and unashamed way. My goal is to call viewers into a conversation about the fundamental ideas surrounding females, their bodies, their care, their work, and their lives.

Cassie Arnold received her BFA in Visual Art Studies from the University of North Texas. She has spent the last decade teaching in both private and public secondary schools and has showcased her work in FiberartInternational where she received First Prize, Ashurst Art Prize in London, Mother Art Prize in London, Birth Rites Collection at Kings College, Fantastic Fibers International Exhibition, and numerous other Fine Art exhibitions around the United States and Europe. Cassie's work has also been featured in international publications such as Maker's Magazine's Women's Issue, Friend of the Artist, SLEEK Magazine in Berlin, Vogue Russia, Glamour Brazil, and Fiber Art Now's Excellence in Fibers Exhibition. Cassie, her partner, and three kids live, work, and play in Denton, Texas.

Cristina Ayala is a Dallas-based fiber artist whose work intricately weaves together her background in design with her passion for textiles. Born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico, Cristina holds a Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design with a minor in fashion design from Universidad de Monterrey. It was during her time living on the East Coast that she discovered her love for fiber art and began exploring techniques that would later become integral to her artistic expression.

Drawing inspiration from her Mexican heritage, Cristina's work is characterized by a vibrant fusion of traditional techniques and contemporary design. Her pieces not only showcase her knowledge of various ber techniques but also serve as a bridge connecting her to her cultural roots. Through the use of natural fibers and intuitive weaving, Cristina creates pieces that evoke a sense of nostalgia and celebrate the rich tapestry of Mexican culture.

Nosheen Iqbal was born in Surrey, England, and moved to Texas in her mid-teens. She earned a BFA in Communication Design from the University of North Texas, where she received the Outstanding Portfolio Award. Following graduation, she spent over a decade at Fossil, progressing through roles in design, art direction, and ultimately becoming a lead watch designer. During this time, she contributed to brands such as DKNY, Armani Exchange, Opening Ceremony, and Michaels. Today, Nosheen is a multidisciplinary artist, working in product design and development while continuing her personal art practice. Nosheen’s Pakistani heritage deeply influences her artistic vision, particularly in her use of color, pattern, and texture. She draws inspiration from Pakistan’s rich history of pigment dyeing and embroidery techniques, which vary across provinces and trace back to the Mughal Empire. Her work is also shaped by the intricate and interwoven patterns found in Islamic art. By blending classical elements with contemporary craft, she invents new forms of design that honor traditional techniques while pushing creative boundaries.

She has collaborated with renowned brands like Hermès to create stunning window installations and has worked with companies including Starbucks, Fossil, Opening Ceremony, Virgin Voyages, and Marriott. In addition to her commercial projects, Nosheen has contributed to charitable initiatives, creating pieces for organizations such as Dwell with Dignity, Amaal USA Scholarship Fund, The Warren Center and The Human League. She was an integral part of Fossil Foundation in helping empower younger generations. She is also a part of the Tin District artist community and bringing artwork an approachable platform.

Arrange enough edges together, and they’ll form a frame. Arrange enough edges within the space of a frame, and they’ll begin to form a place. The spatial elements of a painting provide the foundation of storytelling. By reducing the subject to space and color, West constrains the architectural space of the painting with planes of color and line work, forming spatial harmonies and poetics. Through color choice, line weight, and shape defining, West’s work references not only the history of painting, but also architectural theory, philosophy, and cinema, by translating their spatial elements of storytelling into painted form.

Heath West’s development of hand-woven acrylic fabrics ties to his architectural roots, as color, form, and composition form the base aspects of both his articucturally inspired works, and landscape abstractions. Essence is at the root of his practice, taking on the mantle of artists like Jozsef Albers, Piet Mondrian, Helen Frankenthaller, and Mark Rothko. Beginning as a way to explore his interest in color and texture together, these works project a primal instinct to build relationships between forms and colors. As a split in his general practice of painting, the physical object becomes a key indicatior of the interconnection; “I think by stretching the fabric over a wooden frame—and by applying a wood frame on the exterior— hanging them on the wall connects these pieces to paintings,” says West.

Heath West (b. 1976, Houston, Texas. Lives and works in Joshua Tree, California) Recent exhibitions include Gallery Chiao (2023, Taipei, Taiwan) and Galleri Urbane (Dallas, 2020). His work has also appeared in group shows with Cohle Gallery (Paris, 2024), 0-0.LA (Los Angeles, 2017), Harper’s Books (East Hampton, 2016), and GIFC/ Velvet Ropes (Copenhagen and NYC, 2018 and 2019). His paintings have been featured in the recent publications of Friend of the Artist (2018), Grapefruit Magazine (2018), and Anxy (2018), along with online articles in Booooooom (2020), It’s Nice That (2019), and A Series of Rooms (2019). West is a recipient of the 2017 grant in painting from The Peter S. Reed Foundation.

With their bright colors and featureless faces, Marlon Wobst's pictures until this point cultivated a charged tension between boisterous activity, and a slightly eery absence of intention. In other words, no object or expectation. Just play. Play is here also a metonym for the act of painting itself. Whereas child’s play is undertaken solely in pursuit of the natural right of pleasure, these paintings undertake the adult variation on this theme; pursuing free play via the unplanned — or barely planned — image, they also take part in a constantly unfolding reminder of play’s human necessity. As the child psychoanalyst D.W. Winnicott put it: “It is creative apperception more than anything else that makes the individual feel that life is worth living.”

Marlon Wobst (B. 1980 in Wiesbaden) graduated as a painter and master student at Universität der Künste Berlin in 2011 with Professor Robert Lucander. In his body of work, which includes oil paintings, felt tapestries, ceramics, and works on paper; he mainly addresses the human existence. He researches typical everyday moments in life, such as getting dressed, exercising, eating, resting or mating; his large scale paintings, the colorful felt works and rather small, intimate ceramics are all glimpses in his, but also human, experiences, rituals and habits. His works are shown internationally in galleries, museums and institutions such as Kunstverein Siegen (Siegen), Kunsthal Charlottenborg (Copenhagen), Kunsthalle Hangelar (Sankt Augustin), Galerie Maria Lund (Paris), Galerie Zeller van Almsick (Vienna), and Galleri Urbane (Dallas). Since 2021, Marlon Wobst has a lectureship for painting at the Universität der Künste Berlin.