Marla Brill
ARTIST BIO
Marla Brill’s creative journey began in Chicago, where a childhood surrounded by fabric, color, and craft shaped a lifelong love of tactile materials. A third-generation maker — her grandfather a tailor, her father in the men’s clothing business — Brill inherited not only a skill set, but a reverence for material, texture, and the handmade. “For my father, it was always about the goods — the cloth, the feel, the hand,” she recalls. “That sensibility is at the heart of everything I make.”
After moving to California in the late 1970s, Brill’s practice evolved through fiber construction, handmade paper, and fabric collage. Travels across the globe deepened her connection to the textures, colors, and traditions of diverse cultures — influences that continue to resonate in her work today.
Over time, Brill’s exploration expanded into mixed-media assemblage, incorporating repurposed and found objects. Her work reflects a fascination with transformation — how memory, material, and meaning converge through the act of making. She describes herself as a “collector of possibilities,” often sourcing inspiration in hardware stores, salvage yards, and the overlooked corners of daily life.
Each piece Brill creates carries echoes of her past and her heritage of makers, reimagined through curiosity and craftsmanship. Her art invites viewers to look closely, to see beauty in what’s been remade, and to rediscover the tactile world through the lens of transformation.
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Graham Life is so precious. Through my art, I hope to convey my deep appreciation for the “life force” and I invite the viewer to share in the wonder I experience as an artist and protector of life in all forms. That “quickening,” that “life force” is a constant energy that surges through my veins and sparks my creativity. I am a creative; an artist, a dancer, a mother. I make art because I must. An interesting concept, an unusual form, or a sudden vision can steal me from my duties or awaken me from my dreams. My interests in preserving the environment and promoting social justice frequently drive the message of my artwork. My pieces often begin with a visceral response to an act of injustice or the destruction of our natural world and explode into social commentary. In the mid 1980’s, I passionately explored the ancient Japanese tradition of handmade paper. I was attracted to the use of natural fibers, water, and elements that promote fibrous interaction to ultimately produce a thing of beauty. Ten years later, I embraced the challenge of creating beauty and complexity from other materials that were raw and simple. This inspired me to explore a variety of media from transformed fabric and knotless netting, to repurposed, reclaimed, and reimagined materials. Then in 2009, life changes propelled me to become passionate about felting wool. As in making paper, felting wool transforms natural fibers through the use of water and fibrous interaction. By employing wet and dry techniques, laminating gauzy silks to the wool fibers, inlaying embellishments, and blending colored fleece, I create painterly fabrics, unique wall art, and exciting three-dimensional forms. As an Obstetrical nurse for four decades, I was entrusted with guiding women in the most awe-inspiring form of creation. Similar to assisiting the labor process, felting requires strength, calculation, patience, and a sensitive connection to the subtle transformation of the material. The fact that I am passionately attracted to the tactile, rhythmic, spiritual, water-dependent nature of my professions as a nurse and as an artist does not escape me.
