Saturday, July 22, 2017

Time Warp...and Weft

From June 15 - July 29 at the Lyndon House Arts Center in Athens, GA.

[NOTE: click on photos to see them larger]


Tommye Scanlin, 2015 and 2016 Tapestry Diaries
The theme of this exhibit is artists who weave about time. This is the second venue of the show, and we have added work by Rebecca Mezoff this time.

The first was the NOTO Arts Center in Topeka, KS, November 2016, and featured the work of Tommye Scanlin, Janette Meetze, Kathy Spoering, Geri Forkner and me, Janet Austin.

I was lucky enough to attend both opening receptions.

Tommye Scanlin (GA) was the first of us to weave a tapestry diary, and she inspired me to start. Tommye also gets the credit for proposing this exhibit, helping to organize it, and for writing an article about it for the summer 2017 issue of Shuttle, Spindle and Dyepot. You can read Tommye's blog post about the opening reception on her blog.

Janette Meetze (OK) exhibited her beautiful 2014 tapestry diary, Red Dirt Days, in the American Tapestry Biennial 11, an international juried exhibition. People are really interested in this idea. You can read about her work on her blog.
Janette Meetze - Red Dirt Days
Kathy Spoering (CO) wove her Calendar Series, 12 tapestries that each represent one month of the year, over a period of 8 years. It was awesome to see them all hanging together. Kathy also made the Topeka exhibit possible. You can read about that on her blog.
Kathy Spoering - Calendar Series
Rebecca Mezoff - Petrified Forest Tapestry Diary
Rebecca Mezoff (CO) spent the month of November 2016 as the artist-in-residence at Petrified Forest National Park, and wove a small, 2x2" tapestry every day.

Later, she put together a book of photos that shows each tapestry with its inspiration. You can read about it (and buy a copy if you want!) on her blog.

Geri Forkner (TN) has been making her daily weavings since 2005. They are all made from things that come into her life (often on her many walks), and she has a rule against buying things for the weavings.

When you see them hanging in the gallery they create a space, and as people walk through, disturbing the air, the weavings sway as if they are alive. You can read more about this work here.

Geri Forkner - Daily Weavings
Oh yeah, Janet Austin (RI) has been weaving tapestry diaries since 2010. It's a daily practice that gets me into the studio, it's an exercise that warms up my weaving muscles, it's a meditation and a path to creativity. You can read more about it here, and follow the links to earlier tapestry diary posts.

Janet Austin - 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016 Tapestry Diaries