Meet Emerging Artist Savaree Hazard-Chaney - Inside Art with Michael Rose

Meet Emerging Artist Savaree Hazard-Chaney - Inside Art with Michael Rose

 

Artists tend to be solitary people and few artmakers meld their passion for artmaking with a spirit of public engagement as much as Savaree “Sav” Hazard-Chaney. A multimedia artist with experience in painting, mural design, and tufting, she also shares her passion for creativity with workshop students and studio visitors. Sav is at the beginning of an engaging artistic career and is earning attention and accolades for her creative pursuits.

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Originally from Massachusetts, Sav now resides in Providence with her wife and children. Although she has long had a creative inclination, she originally attended college with the idea of working in science or medicine. After she earned a BA in Psychology and a BS in Chemical Dependency and Addiction Studies from Rhode Island College, Sav worked in the field before making the transition to studio work full-time. A member of the current cohort of WaterFire’s Accelerate program for emerging artists, Sav is also a member of the Graduate Hotel’s Sweet Dreams Society and is an artist-in-residence at their Providence location, where she hosts workshops in a sunlit ground floor studio space off their lobby.

 

Sav is currently well known for her direct and colorful fiber artworks, but previously focused on easel paintings and has also completed mural projects. For Sav, the switch to tufting from painting was a distinct choice, and is linked to the physicality of this medium. She says of it, “For me, tufting is such a tactile and physical experience. I love that I have to MOVE to get what I want done. I’m taking this period in my life and in my creative career to appreciate myself and my body for where it’s at. So I’m moving until I can't! I can always sit and paint later.”

 

 

Sav’s work can currently be viewed in If These Walls Could Talk, an exhibition featuring current Accelerate artists, who are all 30 or younger. In that show, at the WaterFire Arts Center through July 9, Sav is sharing some of her inventive forays into tufted artworks, including a wall-spanning rug that seemingly melts onto the floor and a fiber basketball sculpture. She will also be featured in the Providence Biennial for Contemporary Art later this summer and is working on completing her largest piece yet for that exhibition.

 

A large part of Sav’s artistic practice is connected to the public. Through her business TuftXPVD, she teaches tufting workshops and helps others to learn the basics of this fast-growing artform. In interactive classes, Sav shows aspiring artists how to use fiber to express themselves and helps them to make works from start to finish. Speaking of what it means to her to share with others in this way, Sav says, “Teaching tufting workshops has been so fun and fulfilling! I’ll never get tired of people's faces when they realize they’ve created something so cool.”

 

 

Tufting has rapidly expanded in popularity, with both novices and experienced artists turning to tufting to enhance or shift their practices. Sav recently attended a major tufting conference in Philadelphia, where she was able to put her own practice in perspective alongside peers from across the nation. Asked what she sees for the future of this form of artmaking, Sav answers, “It’s amazing what can happen or be created when the mind has the opportunity to expand. I think having more spaces where fibers/textiles are accessible is important to growing the community here in Providence. Tufting is here and only growing in the Creative Capital. I'm happy to feel like me and TuftxPVD are a part of that.”

 

When she is not teaching workshops or making her own art in the shared studio space at The Graduate Hotel downtown, Sav also has a studio that she splits with a jewelry maker in a historic mill in the Valley District. A young artist ensconced in the Providence art scene, she is bringing a vibrant creative vision of her own to the community. Asked the best part of being a creative based in Rhode Island, Chaney is decisive in answering and says, “All the support. It feels amazing. Rhode Island is small but we are packed with love.”

 

 

Viewers can see some of Sav’s latest works in If These Walls Could Talk, on view at the WaterFire Arts Center at 475 Valley Street in Providence though July 9. The show is open Wednesday - Sunday from 10 am - 5 pm each day and Thursdays until 9 pm.

 

Learn more about Savaree Hazard-Chaney and what is new in her studio on her Instagram at @artxbyxsav.

Learn more about her tufting workshops and classes on Instagram at @tuftxpvd.