BIRGITTA BOWER
Birgitta Bower is a self-taught needle-felting artist. Trained as a doctor in Sweden, when she moved to the United States in 1998, she found her license and degree credits were not transferable and focused her attention on raising her two children. She was first introduced to felting when she received a maker kit from a friend as a present in 2008. Over the years she became fascinated by the felting, becoming an expert in every step of the process, learning to clean, prepare, and dye the wool herself, sourced personally from Bay Area sheep farms. Bower takes her medium one step further by combining sheep wool with other wool such as alpaca and adds further texture with yarns and threads.
Bower is known for intricately detailed sculptural felted landscapes that capture the vibrant personality and raw beauty of the Coastside and other iconic vistas. From soaring rock formations to beloved surfing beaches, to scenes of agricultural bounty, even a lifetime resident of the San Mateo County Coast will see new aspects of the landscape in her art. Wool allows for a soaring range of color and luster more vivid than conventional painting or photography, and she maximizes this quality. Trial and error is an important element of her process, she is continually perfecting her technique. Bower has been an active exhibiting member of the Coastal Arts League since 2018, and her work has been selected for many local nonprofit juried shows.
Click here to learn more about Bower’s work. Coastsider Peter Tokofsky received his Ph.D. in Folklore from the University of Pennsylvania. He has held leadership positions at the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Craft and Folk Art Museum.
Surfer’s Beach, 2023, felted wool and thread, 33 x 46 inches, $5,800
Martin's Beach, 2018, fiber and beads, 41 x 35 inches, $6,000
Devil's Slide, 2019, fiber, 49 x 32 inches, $6,000
Mt Tam from Loma Alta, 2023, fiber, 57 x 24 inches, $5,800
Pigeon Point, 2018, fiber, 31 x 26 inches, $2,500
Wavecrest and Redondo Beach, 2018, fiber, 38 x 29 inches, $3,500
Coastside Gold, 2023, fiber, 24 x 8 inches, $1,200
Crab Season, 2017, fiber, 25 x 24 inches, $1,800
Tide Pool, 2017, fiber shells beads, 20 x 36 inches, $2,500
Pines of El Granada, 2023, fiber, 15 x 10 inches, $600
Golden Hour on Haleakala, 2019, fiber, 35 x 28 inches, $3,000
Golden Hour on Haleakala, 2019, fiber, 35 x 28 inches, $3,000