Alysn Midgelow-Marsden is an Auckland based artist with a northern European heritage.
Wall based and sculptural forms are based on metals, fibres, textiles and stitch. She follows no specific traditions but rather is driven by curiosity about the human psyche, about science and about the social stereotypes of textiles and stitch.
It is a practice with an invitation to create pleasurably intimate connections to personal experiences through subconscious and viscerally emotive interactions and is marked visually by a complex, lyrical fluidity.
Her current works are generated from her proximity to the coast and the marine environment. They explore this through fabric, wire, wood and plastics.

Recent awards for selected exhibitions include: Mandurah Wearable Art (Australia) for ‘What Lies Beneath’; ‘Wall Brooches II’, (Australia) for ‘Taniwha’; ‘Changing Threads’ Nelson Arts ‘Bernina Award’ for ‘The Space Between VII’.

Alysn has a long standing fascination with semi-abstract expressionism, portraying emotional energies through a visual medium. Her work is personal and universal speaking to the subconscious mind. She portrays emotional energies and experiences, imbuing work with references both personal and universal which speak to the subconscious. Alysn draws on thoughts about transformation and change in personal terms and the wider natural world, the mystery and potentiality of the hidden and unseen and inspiration is often drawn from the ever changing natural world, including figures, plants, landscape and geology and from our internal world and emotions. Alysn is also constantly seduced by the possibilities which unusual materials and formats bring to textile art, often working in metal and cloth made from metals which are treated, distressed, textured, printed, layered and stitched before being assembled. Her starting points are observational drawings in mixed media using pastel, watercolour washes, pencil, marker and more. A strong clarity of form is aimed for, and an a honouring of the impact of the instrument, techniques or material used to make the mark, perhaps drawing on the sensibilities of the Arts and Crafts movement. By deliberately exploiting the boundaries of multiple surfaces new dimensions of design and textiles can be revealed. Alysn has a long established textile practice through work for exhibitions, teaching and writing.