Maria Friese Residency – Jazz Felting

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Annalisa Chelli

Community Manager at DHGshop

Sicily and Tuscany are in my blood. Travelling, movies, music, and art are the things I enjoy the most. I love whales, tattoos, the sea, Africa, good food, big smiles, Picasso, ‘The Master and Margarita’, and ‘Marriage Italian Style’. I believe in Charles Darwin and in the proverbs my grandmother said.

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Maria Friese at the DHG headquarters

We had been toying for a very long time with the idea of offering a residency to artists who were looking for a space to work on a special project. The person who made it possible was a fiber artist whom we all love here at DHG: Maria Friese. She is a woman with a delicate yet very strong soul, which is reflected in all of her work.

A little dream come true

Similarly, Maria Friese had been dreaming to find an ideal place where to express her creativity freely. It is thanks to this shared objective that this amazing experience got started! We spent a week with her, admiring her while she worked, listening to her, sharing lunches and dinners with her. We hugged, and then we parted with a see you later, not with a farewell. Everything was even more amazing than we could ever have expected. Because there is no better way to spend time than getting to know someone. The emotional exchange we had we Maria was truly beautiful. Deep. We talked so, so much, and laughed even more. We could not have asked for more from this experience.

Find your voice again

Anyway, let’s move on to the strictly creative aspect. Maria Friese, during her residency at DHG, started a very interesting project. An extremely complex work, made with extra fine merino wool and prefelt, which talks about her. About her newly found holistic approach to life. Her need to find her voice (again) in this distracted, noisy world, a world which does not pay attention to what one has to say anymore. 

The project was started during her residency but will be completed in the future. One day. In fact, at the moment Maria Friese does not know how and when it will be finished. Maybe it will become part of a performance, who knows. Because this time, while at work on her project Maria Friese know only one thing for sure: the result will become clear unexpectedly, when it is ripe. Just like it happens with jazz improvisation, Maria Friese knows where she started from but does not know where she will end up. This is the kind of project for which not only the finished piece matters, but also the emotional journey that took you there. And all of us, here at DHG, are so happy to have witnessed her first step in her new adventure in knowing herself better.

I am going to close the article with Maria’s words, which give an idea of the amount of love that went around during that week!

I knew DHG is the ideal place for me to work for. A nice and familiar atmosphere, wonderful people in a beautiful city and a big place to work for me.

This is her official website:

And if you are interested in a residency with us, in connection with fiber art, all you need to do is write to us and describe your project: annalisa@dyeinghousegallery.com

If you liked this article maybe you would also enjoy DHG Prefelt: Love at first sight