June Statmore

I like to think of myself as carrying on a family tradition of women who create with their hands: knitters, crocheters, quilters, dressmakers, and painters. Most of all I was inspired by my grandmother, who sewed her six children’s clothing, and then, in her later years made original quilts for all of them as well as for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren in addition to painting watercolors well into her 80’s.

After my own period of utilitarian sewing, I began crating original marionettes. These were accepted into the American Craft Gallery in Morristown, NJ, and then in Center Craft, a juried show in the Old Church Art Center in Demarest, NJ. It was at Old Church that I took m first class in basketry with Arline Shalan and fell in love with this creative process. I started working on my own, and soon my baskets were in the American Craft Gallery as well as in the Francisco Gallery at Peters Valley Craft Center.

My studies, which include sculpture using natural materials with Lewis Knauss, wire basketry with Lindsey K Reis, natural materials basketry with Dorothy Gill Barnes, and loom weaving and beading with Ellen Hess, have enables me to play with diverse techniques.  I am constantly inspired to reinvent my central theme of the Japanese influenced gentle “pot shape” and continually create baskets that are different.

My material are mainly natural reed. If I dye them, I use a vegetable based coloring that is subtle and non-toxic. I treat each basket with a spray of natural oil that imparts a soft sheen and prevents the materials from drying out. Some of my favorite adornments are beads, raffia, pine needles, philodendron sheaves, and tree barks. Handles are traditionally woven or beaded and sometimes made of other natural “finds."
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A perfect day for me would include weaving a basket, getting so immersed in the process that I  lose any sense of time and place while creating something new. Sharing my baskets with others who enjoy them is the ultimate pleasure.