Rebecca Yeomans “Keep Looking Up” Fiber Art

This new exhibit “Leaf Love Stories” celebrates the newest work of fiber artist, Rebecca Yeomans. In this show, each creation has a story – from finding inspiration in the Barbie movie, to picking tobacco, to using ink derived from guns. The pieces in this show represent over a year of gathering leaves and materials and making art on almost a daily basis. Rebecca has used this show to explore new things while learning a great deal, and delighting in all the swirling ideas this process stirs up.

The piece titled ‘Keep Looking Up’ has a featured role in the short documentary that was recently filmed about Rebecca’s creative process of contact botanical printing.  She explains that “The phrase carries a double meaning: when foraging, I “keep looking up” and all around for leaves; when making, I keep an optimistic outlook by striving to add beauty, joy, and wonder to our world through art.”  The film “Full Circle: Fiber Art by Rebecca Yeomans” captures the artist in her home studio and foraging for leaves and other botanical materials to create her original art. It will be released to the public in June of 2025 but has already received several accolades from several film festivals.  As of August, it is an official selection in Lift-Off Global Network Los Angeles and Raleigh Film & Art Festival (Best Documentary Category). 

Click here to preview the work in the show!

About the Artist

Rebecca Yeomans has lived her entire life centered around making. She learned to knit at eight years old and was considered the “class artist” in school. She studied studio art at UNC-Chapel Hill, receiving a BFA in 1974. After earning an MFA from Auburn University in 1979 she taught there for several years. Rebecca and her husband Tom moved to Wilmington, NC in 1984 and she worked as a scenic artist in the film industry. She was a founding board member for DREAMS of Wilmington and later taught classes.  After she and Tom raised two artsy daughters, Rebecca quickly moved into full time artist mode. Her current work combines botanical printing, knitting, and stitching with a painterly feel.