Barbara Attwell is an Austin artist who makes wonderful 3-dimensional felted work. I find her animals and birds both charming and intriguing, and her more abstract sculptures are delightul, too. It seems to me that with her felt, soft meets shape in a distinctive manner.
Here's a bit from her bio:
Attwell’s current works are centered on the wisdom, beauty and plight of wild animals and plants, through paintings, small sculptures, and towers that offer wildlife habitat. Additional works are funereal – designs of cremation urns and funeral rituals that promote a return to a more personalized experience. She is also known for her wool-felted works, whimsical snow globes, and found-wood creatures that are assembled to be burned during the winter Solstice.
Her markets range from CD cover illustration to museum exhibit fabrication, along with commissions and exhibitions from both the private and public sector. She has a BFA in Fine Arts from the University of Texas, having begun this lifelong adventure with a scholarship to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts School from the 4th to the 12th grades.
When we… get into the forests again,
We shall shiver with cold and fright
But things will happen to us
So that we don’t know ourselves.
Cool, unlying life will rush in,
And passion will make our bodies taut with power,
We shall stamp our feet with new power
And old things will fall down.
We shall laugh, and institutions will curl up like burnt paper.
D.H. Lawrence