Amanda Langer likes to explore conflict and resolution through her three-dimensional works. In particular, she likes to experiment with how two seemingly unrelated materials can harmonize. In her case, that's steel and fibers that manifest as distinctive sculptures and hangable artworks.

She told me this during a visit to her Jefferson, Wisconsin, studio on Friday, Aug. 22, as she worked on one of her quirky creations. 

The Jefferson-native is the latest to have had works added to Carnelian Art Gallery's permanent collection. Langer is also slated to exhibit pieces in the gallery's Sept.-Oct. exhibition, "Tending The Balance," whose theme is all about ongoing care and finding equillibrium in all aspects of life. Langer is scheduled to give a talk at the opening reception for that show, which is set for Friday, Sept. 5, at 5 p.m. She'll present promptly at 6:30 p.m. on her process, techniques and more.

"This piece is actually a continuation of a series that I have worked on for a number of years on and off examining the difference between the interior of an object, and its extieror," Langer said Friday. "I'm playing with the idea that the exterior is steel and the interior is fiber and what that does to the piece when you see that the inside is so very different from the outisde.

"This series of three that I'm doing for (Tending The Balance) is I'm actually suspending fiber between the two ... opposite sides here. I'm exploring that dea in three different forms. When I was conceptualizing some of the designs for these pieces, I was thinking about how something might look when its been chewed away or rotted."

The series plays on the idea that as something wears away, something else emerges. Something new. Langer sketches her concepts ahead of time. On pieces of paper beside her sculpture were various iterations and angles of how it might look once it's complete. 

"I have to go through bringing it up to scale, which I use cardbaord models for," she said. "Once I have that and I am happy with it, then I go into the shop and get out my metal, my torch and the plasma cutter and start cutting things apart ... welding them together. The fun part is putting all the holes in and making the shapes come alive.

"I get my fiber from all sorts of different yarn shops. I try to use natural fibers as often as possible. That pretty much means exclusively wool and cotton."

Langer said that what inspires her overall body if work is "harmony and dissonance."

"That is the language I am trying to evoke with the choice of materials," she said. "Things can be really different and they can come together to create a cooperatieve, harmonious entity. We don't have to overtake or overpower to get something that works."

Prior to achieving such success as an artist, alongside getting named "Best of Show" in this year's Art Fair on the Square, hosted by the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Langer grew up on a Jefferson farm living a "pretty typicaly life" with "a lot of playing outside." She also drew a lot, and started crocheting when she was age 10. 

The artist attended college at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, double majoring in art and ecological restoration, and graduating in 2017. Langer continues to pursue both passions, and expressed gratitude and excitement about showing her work inside Carnelian Art Gallery. 

"It's a new gallery, so there's this fresh feeling to it," she said.