statement
My hands know things I don’t. I weave because a pattern repeated enough times stops being a choice and starts being memory.
There is a starting point or foundation that doesn’t change; the weaving then becomes the part that can. Every piece starts with the same repetitive path — in front, behind, behind — until tension, material, or my own hand breaks the rhythm. I don’t always know where that change comes from, and I don’t need to, but the curiosity is there.
Materials matter most in what they can offer; sometimes a memory already carried inside them, sometimes a counterpoint, a steady ground for the weaving to sit against. Some of what I work with is mine and not mine at once. I’m rarely working with the whole story, only what was saved and passed down, spoken or not.
The objects aren’t really about the materials themselves. They’re about the habits, patterns, and memory held in an object, or in a body, before anyone decides to keep them.
bio
Essa Baird is a Seattle-based artist working in sculptural weaving, exploring themes of memory, repetition, and material history.
Baird grew up in upstate New York on Lake George, surrounded by the Adirondack Mountains. She studied in Boston at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, double majoring in Sculpture and Studio for Interrelated Media (SIM).
During her undergraduate studies, she took a class taught by Nathalie Miebach titled Sculptural Weaving, where she learned traditional basket weaving techniques and how to apply them in nontraditional, sculptural contexts. It was during this time that she created her first woven vessel from unfired clay and fiber rush. She moved to Seattle after graduating, where she continues to return to and rework that original form.
Her work was included in Basketry Now, a national exhibition juried by Gyöngy Laky at the Textile Center in Minneapolis. She has also exhibited at the Schack Art Center, Northwind Arts Center, MIVAL Gallery, and the Cultural Center of Cape Cod. Her work is held in private collections.
She is an original member of Side Rail Collective, an artist-run studio space and gallery, where she serves as Gallery Manager and curates the exhibition program. As President and Executive Director of the Burien Arts Association, she curates the organization's satellite gallery wall at the Highline Heritage Museum, selecting a new artist for a solo exhibition each quarter. She is also a member of the Northwest Basket Weavers Guild and the National Basketry Organization.