Cecelia Rhoden is a Berea, Kentucky based needlework artist with a passion for repurposed, wearable art. She reclaims traditional domestic chores as a means of self reliance, empowerment, and environmentalism. She seldom purchases supplies, always first trying to recreate, repair, repurpose, or reinvigorate something that many would consider to be at the end of its useful life. Whether its unraveling holy sweaters for yarn, block printing on recycled clothing and fabrics, darning and patching textiles, or untangling a nest of discarded embroidery floss, She has made repurposing materials an integral part of her process of creating durable, wearable works from items destined for the landfill. To date Cecelia has received three grants from the Kentucky Foundation for Women, the Art Meets Activism in July of 2020 to host a radical embroidery workshop for teenage girls in the summer of 2021, the Artist Enrichment grant in January of 2021 to practice and document textile mending, and the Artist Enrichment grant in June of 2021 to create a collection of clothing from repurposed materials.
Contrary Expressions 