Remnants of Nature
Remains, the ongoing series of small studies features plants on the verge of disintegration and decay. 10” x 10” by © Lotta Helleberg.
In the summer of 2024, I interviewed a few creative individuals with the hope of starting a new project—a printed journal. However, it turned out to be more challenging than I had anticipated, mainly due to time constraints. Rather than losing those valuable conversations, I decided to post some of the interviews on the website. Many of them were introspective and personal, while others felt like thoughtful reflections on art and craftsmanship. I connected the responses and transformed them into personal essays, which I found deeply inspiring and wanted to share them with you.
By Lotta Helleberg
The deep love I have for nature and textiles most likely stems from my childhood in southern Sweden. Growing up, my sisters and I spent a lot of time outdoors, exploring the forests and coastlines during weekend outings with our parents. We rode horses, built tree forts, and tended gardens, all in an abundant and accessible natural world that fostered a lifelong appreciation for the environment. Meanwhile, my mother, an amazing seamstress and artisan, taught me everything about fabric quality, buttonhole making, and pattern construction. Watching her weave rag rugs, create her own folk costumes, and even make my leather riding chaps deeply inspired me. These combined experiences instilled in me a deep appreciation for beauty, natural materials, and sustainability.
Disintegrating leaves, faded flowers, and brittle stalks symbolize the ordinary beauty in our surroundings. They highlight the cycles of rejuvenation, maturity, and decay, reminding us of the natural world's fragility and resilience. I’m drawn to things that are discarded, overlooked, or deemed insignificant. Whether it’s weeds or tattered textiles, there is always space for rejects in my art.
My recent work focuses on invasive species—plants once introduced to gardens and fields for their beauty and utility, now spreading far beyond their original intent. These plants engulf our landscapes, suppressing and entangling native flora and the wildlife that depend on it. By portraying these specimens, I aim to spark discussions about local plant life, its impact on our lives, and how we can protect the environment as a whole.
The motifs and images in my work are directly inspired by nature, created through botanical contact prints, relief processes, and natural dyes. These impressions are combined with additional markings, colors, and lines, making each piece a documentation of a specific place or moment in time. Stitching often appears throughout, adding texture and unity, inviting viewers to slow down and take notice. My work embraces natural materials and is committed to leaving behind minimal waste and toxicity, paying homage to the natural world in both form and content.
The fabric pieces I use almost always start out white or undyed, coming from various sources. Vintage linens are a favorite, often gifted by friends who are on the lookout for such treasures. I also hunt for high-quality linen fabrics, particularly those processed in a sustainable manner. Most of the time, the fabric is dyed or printed before I know what the end use will be. It is the process and resulting imagery that propel and inform my work. There may be several passes through the dye pots, but no fabric scraps ever get discarded or wasted.
I mostly work with plants abundant in my neighborhood, and for the past several years, I have focused on depicting weeds and invasive plants. In our area in the eastern US, we have wild grapevine, kudzu, and bittersweet, which are gradually taking over the landscape. The issue of invasive plants is complex, but I believe that highlighting the problem brings awareness and curiosity about how to best protect our environment as a whole.
The works in my porcelain vine series most closely represent who I am and what I want to accomplish. The first two pieces are large, with the entire cloth botanically contact-printed with porcelain vines. Certain areas were then highlighted with colorful appliqués and intricate stitching. Hand stitching is very important to me; it not only enhances the look and feel of a piece by adding texture and color variations, but the act of stitching itself also becomes an integral part of the process. Taking the time to stitch carefully is my way of honoring the work while also enjoying its meditative and contemplative qualities.
My palette is entirely dependent on the plant materials I use, resulting in various shades of brown, gray, yellow, rust, gold, and green, with a small amount of indigo blue sprinkled in. I have always been drawn to paler, natural colors, and my discoveries and experiments with natural dyes have only reinforced those preferences. Recently, I have also explored working with nothing but shades of white. Removing color entirely from artwork is challenging, but interesting surfaces can be created by replacing color with material variations and stitch textures.
Texture is clearly the main allure of textiles for me. No other art form is as tactile and inviting in my mind. I also appreciate how textile art, in particular, adds warmth and a sense of comfort to its environment.
In the series ‘Remains’ the approach is about discovering plants, materials, and environments that are underappreciated, ignored, or considered insignificant. It’s like the classic dandelion sprouting and thriving in the crack of the pavement. When we really take the time to discover such marvels, we learn to appreciate where we are, recognize that beauty is ever-present, and understand how resilient nature truly is.
Lotta Helleberg, a Swedish-born artist based in Charlottesville, Virginia, has spent over a decade experimenting with printmaking and surface design. Her work focuses on botanical contact printing, relief processes, and local plant-based dyes to document and celebrate her surroundings. Helleberg's unique wall and book works have been featured in solo and group exhibitions across the United States and internationally, including the Festival of Quilts in the UK and the Kyoto Shibori Museum in Japan. Her work has also been highlighted in publications such as Natural Processes in Textile Art by Alice Fox, Art Quilting Studio, American Craft, and Patchwork Professional.