Bio
Anette Millington explores the psychological depth of decorative language in her fiber works and prints, which merge botanical imagery with principles of symmetry. Through repeats and reflections, she abstracts flora and fauna to create personal symbols and surface patterns for folded geometric sculptures.
Exhibition highlights include the two-person exhibition, Infinite Forms: Facets, Fabric, and Fiber at the Museum of Mathematics in New York, NY, Paper Made II at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, in Fort Wayne, IN and "Material Reasoning" at the Center for Craft in Asheville, NC. Additional accomplishments include an artist residency at the Center of Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, CT and receiving the Center of Craft’s Materials-Based Research Grant. Her writing and artwork have been featured in national periodicals, including the Surface Design Journal and Fiber Art Now. She has been reviewed online by Hyperallergic, and in print by the Boston Globe.
Anette is Interim Director of the MFA Textiles Program and Assistant Professor of Fashion Systems and Materiality at Parsons School of Design. Anette attended the School of Visual Arts for her MFA and received a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art. She lives and works in Beacon, NY and New York City, NY.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Exploring the psychological depth of decorative language, my fiber works and prints merge botanical imagery with principles of symmetry. I design intricate surface patterns for folded geometric sculptures and create monumental, visceral woodblock prints that serve as anthropomorphic guardians. My practice embraces an expansive materiality, including woodblock and digital printing, silk-screen, embroidery, digitally designed jacquard weaving, and quilting.
Guided by a mythic impulse, I link logic and spirit to navigate the unknown. Memories of growing up on a small family farm ground my connection to patterns, cycles, and systems of care. My fascination with ornamentation and symbology began in the stained glass and brass mythic beasts of my childhood church—images that embedded themselves in my imagination. As a mother, making has become an extension of caretaking, and I infuse each work with a sense of protective force.
I challenge the notion that ornamentation is frivolous, viewing visual pattern as a form of language. My research spans textile embellishment, biological patterning, and the mathematics of symmetry. I examine how human design employs, mimics, and reactivates patterns for psychological and spiritual expression and communication. The algorithmic play of surface design continually inspires me—each reflection and repetition generating unexpected beauty.
interdisciplinary & COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS
My interdisciplinary and collaborative design projects connect craft and technology. The work centers on materiality & embellishment, exploring links between patterns in nature, semiotics and the history of ornamentation. These projects also investigate the way in which tools and technology impact the formulation of meaning in material form.
A project of note is Response Patterns, undertaken with the support of the Center for Craft's Materials-Based Research Grant, to invent environmentally responsive embellishment methods for textiles. Another project Coded Textiles, used computation to generate new possibilities for print, embroidered and woven design. The project mined the intersection of embellishment, semiotics and machine thinking and included collaboration with a creative coder to develop digital sketches and textile outcomes.
Higher Education Courses Taught at Parsons School of design
MFA Textiles Major Studio 4 (Capstone Thesis)
MFA Textiles Major Studio 1 , 2, 3 (Embellishment)
Fashion BFA Design Studio Materiality
BFA Creative Technical Studio
Integrated Studio 2 Fashion
Integrated Studio 1
Digital Surface Design
Drawing and Imaging
Graphic Design 1
2D Design
Drawing