Bio

Tracy Jamar is intimately familiar with traditional forms of needlework as an antiques textile restorer and conservator specializing in quilts and hooked rugs for over 30 years, starting in 1979 at America Hurrah Antiques, NYC.

In 2006 she returned to college to complete an undergraduate degree at Goddard College in Plainfield, VT, undertaking an independent/individualized study of American history through women’s handmade textiles.  Upon graduation in 2009 Jamar set her restoration business aside and committed her time to creating contemporary fiber works that blend her appreciation and admiration of early American textiles with her knowledge of textile techniques.

Jamar was awarded top honors at Newtown Hooked Art 2014 exhibit at the University of CT on the Stamford Campus, as well as two Awards of Excellence from the Surface Design Association and Jurors’ Choice from the Newtown Hooked Art Show.  In East Hampton, NY at Guild Hall’s Artist Members Exhibit she was awarded Best Mixed Media in 2014, Best Sculpture in 2020 and received awards both years of participation in Jack Lenor Larsen’s LongHouse Reserve’s “Planters ON/OFF the Ground” exhibit.  Jamar’s works have been shown in juried and invitational exhibits including “Beyond Rugs!” at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME; “Stripes” a traveling exhibit to Japan; two pieces in the national tour in 2014 of “9x9x3: New Visions” as part of the Textile Study Group of New York; an exhibit in South Korea in late 2016 and three solo exhibits. 

Jamar’s book, Coils, Folds, Twists and Turns: Contemporary Techniques in Fiber was published in 2017.  She contributed extensively on American Sewn Rugs: Their History with Exceptional Examples with Jan Whitlock, published in October 2012.  Jamar appeared twice on Martha Stewart’s Living television program on HGTV.  She was Keynote Speaker at the Association of Traditional Rug Hooking Artists in Denver, CO in 2019.  Her work is in Mary Sheppard Burton’s A Passion for the Creative Life: Textiles to Lift the Spirit and in Mary Schoesser's Textiles: The Art of Mankind. Jamar’s work has been included in various other publications and she has taught at prestigious national and international venues.

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