Artist Weaves The Questions

Threading My Way is a textile in the act of creating itself. Patches of color give way to others. The ends tatter off at the top, as if the yarn hasn’t been fully spun. And then there’s the netting, falling in a wild pattern until it snakes off into a loose thread at the end.

It’s a fitting introductory piece to ​“Casting a Net,” an exhibition of fiber works by artist Jennifer Davies — now running at City Gallery on Upper State Street through Dec. 29 — that celebrates the art of discovery.

“I chose the title ​‘Casting a Net’ for both its concrete and abstract meaning. I do literal casting with paper pulp of tree bark and fungi, and work with a variety of nets — gauze, plastic bird netting, and those that I weave myself. But I also cast out my net figuratively to gather in ideas and experiment with new ways to use pulp,” Davies writes in an accompanying artist statement. ​“Though size and material are diverse in my work, handmade paper is a common element. I pigment the paper and layer it on as one would paint, combining it with thread and fabric to make textured abstractions. To make the large pieces I pour colored pulp onto a screen, using the hose to spray it into a lace-like pattern. The netting or altered gauze I dip into pigmented pulp to make complex textiles.”

Her explorations aren’t random, but they are intentionally open-ended. ​“Informing the imagery of my work are long admired patterns in nature,” she writes. ​“Celestial designs, the foam on a spent wave, or the richness of aerial photos all find echoes in my work. Though I start with an initial idea or a memory of natural form, I take my cues from the interaction of my materials. The next steps will be suggested if I remain open to what I see — the joy is found by surprising myself.”

In a few of the pieces, you can see those patterns in nature quite explicitly. Out of the Woods could be mistaken for a near-perfect replica of bark and mushrooms on a tree. In another piece, the pattern of a leaf has been boldly and unmistakably pressed into the fabric almost like a fossil. Another, aptly titled Practice Run, really does appear to be drawn from the fleeting shadow of a runner.

But then there are pieces like Doodled, which give a sense of what happened when Davies fell into the process she writes about in her statement. There is the careful layering of elements, one after the other. In Doodled, the ideas trial outward and vanish into the white background, suggesting that Davies could have kept growing this particular piece infinitely if she wanted.

Other pieces, like Point of Departure, seem instead to turn inward. They find their depth in density.

But ultimately, the fun of the pieces in ​“Casting a Net” doesn’t lie in figuring out where the pieces end, or trying to guess when Davies knew the pieces were done. As Davies’s statement suggests, the pieces are the documents of a process, the results of experiments. You get the sense of an artist going through a transition in her art practice, figuring out what she likes, looking back at the initial points of inspiration and then surging forward from there, unafraid to keep asking questions, even if it’s possible that the questions will never end.

“Casting a Net” runs at City Gallery, 994 State St., through Dec. 29. Visit the gallery’s website for hours and more information.