Cara Huato is a multidisciplinary artist and designer who explores alternative processes and bio materials. Growing up in extremely rural eastern Oregon her deep connection to living with the land has shaped her resourcefulness and expertise in sustainability. A professional background spanning product design, photography, and fashion, she brings a cross-disciplinary approach to rethinking material futures. The founder of Design Farm Lab, a sustainable design consultancy, her work has been internationally exhibited, earned fellowships, residencies, and grants that support emerging voices in craft and innovation.

She continues to expand her work at the intersection of art and science engaging audiences with work that emphasize the possibilities of overlooked or discarded materials. 

“My artistic practice is where I give myself permission to be human, to follow my emotions and instincts, to play and to explore.

 I have a profound belief that the design process starts at the material. I think the most interesting work is done at the edge of fields. I often find myself living between the worlds of art, science, and communication. 

For the past three years I have been exploring alternative processes for creating with textile waste. I start by exploring simple accessible techniques like draping and molding to develop 3D forms. By keeping it simple I can begin to see the changing factors in my experiments, and explore the potential of the materials I am working with. 

I give myself permission to fully explore possibilities, working on the same pieces for hours or years until I feel they are done.

I try to listen very closely to what my materials tell me. They very rarely do what I want them to, but what some may see as failed experiments I see as an ongoing conversation. Some want to be flexible, others rigid. Rather than try to force them to be what they are not it is my job to listen. To look at these new materials and ask the question every teenager gets asked, “what do they want to be?” 

I spent time developing my own biomaterial that allows me to work with a variety of commonly discarded apparel materials. The issues that fashion waste present to the world can be seen as great challenges, to me this is an exciting area ripe with opportunities for sustainable innovation. 

Creating new materials allows me to explore a future that is grounded in reality. Although my personal work may at first glance appear to be rooted in self expression (due to the it’s bright fun colors, weird textures and wobbly shapes) at its core its giving me permission to ask larger question about design theory and how we as makers create. “ - CARA HUATO