Ray Materson: Common Threads

Born in Milford, Connecticut, in 1954, Ray Materson grew up in the Midwest. He earned a G.E.D. and attended Thomas Jefferson College as a drama and philosophy major, but struggled with addiction and committed a string of robberies with a shoplifted toy gun. He was eventually arrested and sentenced to 15 years in a state penitentiary in Connecticut. 

After about a year behind bars, Materson requested a sewing needle from a security guard. Using fabric swatches torn from bedsheets and colored threads painstakingly extracted from knitted socks, he drew upon childhood memories of watching his grandmother do needlework and began making embroidered portraits of things he missed from life on the outside, including University of Michigan football, Impressionist paintings, and his family. His new hobby helped him stay out of trouble and calmed his mind. It also earned him the nickname “Betsy Ross.”

Since his early release from prison in 1995, Materson has worked as a teacher, counselor, caseworker, program director, design consultant, and speaker. In 2003, he became the first artist to receive the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Innovators Combating Substance Abuse award. His art speaks to the myriad ways in which creative, personal, and economic need can foster uncanny ingenuity.

Materson’s art is held in numerous prominent private collections as well as the permanent holdings of the American Folk Art Museum, the American Visionary Art Museum, and the Bennington Museum. Previous solo exhibitions include the American Primitive Gallery; University of California, Davis; and the Mini-Time Machine Museum of Miniatures. In 2002, Materson published a memoir, Sins and Needles: A Story of Spiritual Mending (Algonquin Books).

— Danny Lichtenfeld, Director

RELATED EVENTS
November 15, Saturday, 5 p.m. — Opening of New Exhibits

RELATED RESOURCES
Installation Views
Ask the Artist!

Presented in connection with the Brattleboro Festival of Miniatures