Walking from her home, onto a soft dirt path,  into the studio of  artist Pam Gunning is like entering  a rich and textured painting; her creativity is woven into every fiber of her life style.  In her studio she has beautiful cones of colored silk, rayon and  cotton, and soothing woven fabric, draped in luxurious ways.  There is a  golden tint in her studio that streams in through the windows and reflects off of the warm yellow pine ceilings onto the colors in her yarns. 

          While she works on a large Swedish loom, she is surrounded by hundreds of cones of colorful threads….a rainbow of inspiration at her finger tips.  “Red rock canyons, lichen green vegetation and azure blue skies all find their way into my weaving.  Melodies of songbirds and howls of the coyotes are there too, in spirit, individual threads that when joined together create a rich Sedona “tapestry of Life” she says, as she gently moves her fingers. 

        Ms. Gunning is a  talented weaver who lives with her husband, Bill, in a historic Sedona  home made of stone,  on property with buildings snuggled between  canyons of red rocks and ledges.  She is an artist’s artist and her lifestyle is testimony to this, as one stands in her studio surrounded by her creative touch. 

        She often takes walks outdoors and  even after 26 years, she still   basks in the beauty of her ambient surroundings and weaves it into her colorfully designed  fabrics.  Embracing her environment, as she integrates it into her art.  

        “As she hikes, she absorbs the atmosphere around her–the light and shadows, colors, sounds and scents of the desert and these filter through her as combinations of color and texture when she warps her looms” writes Deanne McKeown in Sedona Magaizine.  

            Ms. Gunning is a well known local weaver who  believes in a simple existence.  She is a down to earth artist, who lives a contemplative life style creating cocoon jackets and shawls with her traditional looms, of which she has seven. In  her work one sees an understated inelegance, vibrant with earthy southwestern colors.  No two works are alike, using different threads, textures and looms on each piece. 

       Pam is a member of “Fiber Arts: Sedona” (FAS), a professional art’s group, and will be showing her studio and art work, along with four other fiber artists, in the community during October. 

      FAS is presenting a fiber art exhibition at the Kinion Gallery, 361 Forest Road, in the vault during the month of October.  Opening night will be October 2nd, first Friday.  This exhibit will be the appetizer for a “Fiber Crawl”, better known as an open studios art event, which will occur on the weekend of October 2^nd & 3^rd, daily from 10-5pm.  

      The public is invited to visit and see the artists working in their work space.  For more information contact Margaret Anderson at  928-203-4355.  Nancy Robb Dunst may be reached at  DUNST STUDIOS ndunst@yahoo.com.

Artist and writer, Nancy Robb Dunst