Martha Nutt’s creative journey began at Staten Island Academy, where she spent

her formative years from kindergarten through graduation in 1980. There, three

passions emerged that would define her life’s work: art, athletics, and supporting

others in developing their physical potential. As captain and co-captain of varsity

field hockey, basketball, and softball teams, she learned the discipline of practice

and teamwork. Simultaneously, as art director of her school’s yearbook and

literary magazine The Quill, she honed her visual sensibility, while weekend

classes at Parsons School of Design introduced her to fashion and fabric design.

After graduation, Martha attended Drexel University’s School of Design, drawn to

its work-study program. Her semesters working at the Fabric Workshop proved

transformative. Working intimately with textiles, she began exploring fabric’s

innate properties: its grid structure, the diagonal stretch along its bias, and the

varying characteristics of different fibers. Advancing her skills in silk screening on

fabric, she gained the confidence to transfer to Rhode Island School of Design.

At RISD, Martha developed a distinctive approach that allowed the inherent

nature of fabric itself to direct her designs and applications. Her work earned

placement on the Dean’s List of Excellence and was exhibited in RISD’s

prestigious Woods-Gerry Gallery. Following graduation, Staten Island Academy

mounted an exhibition of her work, earning a two-page feature in The Staten

Island Advance.

Martha’s professional career began at WilliWear, the innovative New York fashion

house, where she served as in-house textile designer. She frequently traveled to

India to oversee production of her woven fabrics and print designs. Her

black-and-white optic collection, which explored the natural phenomenon of

moiré patterns, garnered extensive press attention and critical acclaim.

After eight years of school and work, Martha recognized something essential

missing from her life: physical fitness and the sense of wellbeing it brings. She

discovered that through nutrition, cardiovascular training, and the strategic

loading of resistance to muscle fibers, she could create positive change—a

remodeling, a refined sense of embodiment. She immediately took to this internal

art because it followed her approach to fabric work: tap into the nature of the

material, design repetitive patterns accordingly and create specific outcomes.

This discovery sparked an integration of Martha’s artistic and physical pursuits.

She wouldn’t merely cultivate this internal fiber art within herself; she would

facilitate it in others.

Through fabric art and teaching embodied wellness, Martha has created a unique

legacy that honors both the material and the human form. For the past 36 years,

she has studied with masters of weight training, yoga, pranayama, meditation, tai

chi, and various modalities of bodywork. She has worked with clients spanning all

ages in the gym, on the yoga mat, through nutritional guidance, and on the

massage table. She teaches the fundamental tools of life: how to feel alignment

under gravity, how to access mental and emotional states through breathwork

and meditation, and how to nourish the body with whole foods.

Throughout these decades, now as Arden - a name chosen to reflect her ardent

passion and zeal for life and creativity - she has continued her textile artistry.

In her Los Angeles studio, she creates silk scarves, dramatic evening shawls,

and wall hangings. Her work appears in galleries and museum stores. Giving

talks, she shares her creative philosophy with art students at Santa Monica

College. Arden’s life’s work demonstrates that art is not confined to gallery walls

but extends to every conscious choice we make in sculpting our lives, our bodies,

and our awareness. Through textiles and through teaching embodied wellness,

Arden Nutt has woven a unique creative legacy that honors both the material and

the human form.