Finding inspiration in the mundane is an artistic challenge. For the next six weeks the Ann Arbor Art Center will feature the works of four Michigan-based fiber artists who were up for the task with its new exhibit "Unraveling the Familiar." The exhibit premiered Friday.

Marsha Chamberlin, president of the art center, said that the center sought artists who could find innovative and contemporary applications in the traditional models and techniques of fiber art.

The centerpiece of the exhibit is a string-and-bead piece titled "Two: One - The Tension of Surfaces," by Megan Heeres, who came to Detroit from Battle Creek.

"Two: One" is probably the most interactive piece in the exhibit. Visitors are encouraged to walk through the piece's layers of strings and beads, which are similar to door beads made popular in the 1970s. 

Heeres said that guests who interact with the piece shouldn't be ashamed when beads fall to the floor - that's just gravity doing its job.

Heeres said Detroit is a great place to be an artist because of the cheap living and cheap creative space available. She rents a suite at the Russell Industrial Center.

Brooks Harris Stevens, meanwhile, has found the Ann Arbor area provides more inspiration than her North Carolina roots.

Stevens, a fiber art professor at Eastern Michigan University, contributed three pieces. The most compelling is "No Longer Here," crafted in honor of Stevens's father Randy, who died of lung cancer.

Using stitched cigarette papers configured to represent a floor plan in one of her father's early homes, a projector plays an image of Randy in his boyhood. Fans blowing the cigarette papers represent the fact that life is fleeting, here today and gone tomorrow.

The main gallery features three pieces by Annica Leah Cuppetelli, a Detroit-based artist who seeks to blur the line between fashion design and art.

Cuppetelli said when she was on a tryout for "Project Runway" in January 2008, legendary fashionisto Tim Gunn told her that she was more of an artist than a fashion designer.

She didn't see the need to make a distinction between the two, and said as much. Gunn and the show's producers respected that decision. Cuppetelli advanced to the next round of screening but no further. 

The centerpiece of Cuppetelli's pieces is one called "Structured Garment #1," which resembles a tent or a wigwam. Using a fiber technique called "boning," Cuppetelli said that her goal was to turn flat fibers into a three-dimensional work that takes advantage of natural shadows and silhouettes.

The exhibit also has several pieces from Jill Jepson, a professor at Ferris State University whose love for fiber art goes back to sewing with her grandmother as a little girl.

On Jan. 30, the four artists will return to give an informal talk on their work. "Unraveling the Familiar" will remain at the Ann Arbor Art Center through Valentine's Day.

James David Dickson can be reached at JamesDickson@AnnArbor.com.