Tapestry Touring International: The Natural World

This touring exhibition opened at The Guildhall, Much Wenlock, Shropshire, UK, in October, 2022, and was open for the month. The second venue will be in March, 2023, at Kirkleatham Museum. My tapestry is titled "Earth Bleeds."

Pandemic Tapestries

Here I am, more than a year since the last entry. The pandemic seems to be receding in our state, and to a lesser extent in our country, and since we are fully vaccinated we can now visit with family members. We got to meet our new grand baby in April! Yay for us! 

BUT: I just read that for the unvaccinated, there is as much risk now, as there was during the January surge, and in many other countries the situation is dire, with health care systems overwhelmed. This is not over. 

Chaos: Pandemic

This small tapestry was the first one I wove during the pandemic. 

It is small, only 5 x 4 inches and was the first tapestry woven on my new Mirrix Saffron loom.

Chaos: Pandemic Nights

This is the second pandemic tapestry, also woven on the same small loom. 

Both of these are part of the long series of Chaos tapestries. I keep thinking that series is finished, but then there always seems to be a little more chaos to deal with.

I also finished the large Chaos tapestry that had been languishing on my loom for a few years, finally! It's still waiting to be hemmed and photographed, but here is a detail.

Sun Sets on Chaos

Social Distancing and the Tapestry Weaver

2020 Tapestry Diary, Jan - March

Of course my first reaction, when I was told to stay home, was GREAT! I get to spend hours every day weaving and painting and playing piano and dulcimer and reading books and working in the garden and and and...

Well, I have been weaving my tapestry diary every day. This is it so far, all parallelograms this year, and so far the colors are wintry. That will change soon. For more about my tapestry diaries see here, with links to older posts.

Wintersweet, detail

I finished the small piece for the Unjuried Small Format exhibit that was planned for this summer. Due to uncertainty about the gallery being open, it will now be online, on the American Tapestry Alliance website instead of hanging on a wall. There will still be a printed catalog, and each artist will get a complimentary copy. When the exhibit was here, in 2014, I was the exhibition chair, and we exhibited 219 tapestries from all over the world! Such a fun show! Here is a small detail because I hate to spoil the surprise before the exhibit opens. Title "Wintersweet."

More Chaos in Progress

It took me 2 weeks to get back to my neglected tapestry, the one I THOUGHT would be the last of the Chaos series. It is dawning on me how timely this theme still is, and I suspect there will be more after this one. Here it is in progress, on the loom with bobbins dangling. I have about 8 inches left to go, and I hope to finish it before Memorial Day.

As for the Corvid19 Pandemic, when my governor requested that everyone over 65 should just stay home, 3 1/2 weeks ago, it was kind of a relief since going out had been getting nerve wracking. A few days later the library where I work was closed (as they all are now), the Y where I swim closed, and everything was cancelled. I am lucky to live in an area where I can go for walks without passing more than a handful of people. I am discovering how nice it is not to be driving hither and yon doing errands daily. We are living through a moment in history that will be written about and remembered, and I can only hope that we are doing everything we can to help each other. Stay home, and stay well.

What's happening?

I think it's time for an update on where my tapestries are traveling to, which will be useful for me when I start wondering where they might be....

This small tapestry, "Phantom Trees," is at the Wickford Art Association's Members Exhibit until August 11, 2019. Check it out soon!

"Into the Mist" is in Small Tapestry International 6: Beyond the Edge. The first venue at Northwestern State University, Natchitoches, LA, it ended last week (sorry if you live nearby and missed it....)  The second venue is Augustana Teaching Museum of Art, Augustana College, Rock Island, IL and the opening reception is September 6, 2019. For more info and to purchase the print catalog go here.

Three of my small Chaos tapestries are traveling to Maine for this exhibit:

tapestry: the new wave

August 6-31, Down East Gallery, Edgecomb, ME

(Click on the postcard to enlarge it)

COMING SOON:


IMPACT: climate change



a collaborative exhibition by TWW (Tapestry Weavers West) and TWiNE (Tapestry Weavers in New England).

First venue: Belmont Gallery of Art, Belmont, MA - Sept 8 - Oct 13, 2109 (reception Sept 15, 1-3)
Second venue: Mills Building, San Francisco, CA, Dec 16, 2019 - March 13, 2020 (reception Jan 30, 2020, 5.30-7.30)

Elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water

LaDonna Mayer, Earth: Silk Tree

This exhibition of small tapestries included 10 artists each, from USA, UK and Australia. The first venue was Australia National University in Canberra. From there it traveled to Australian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne, Australia; Riversley Art Gallery and Museum, Nuneaton, UK and The Guildhall, Much Wenlock, UK.

Janet Austin, Earth: Another Forest Through the Trees

The 5th and final venue for this exhibit at the Bob Owens Gallery, University of North Georgia, Dahlonega, GA, ended today. I went there for a reception and a workshop by Jane Freear-Wyld (the organizer of the exhibit). Tommye Scanlin helped to make this venue possible. My tapestry is "Another Forest Through the Trees." 8 x 9" (above)

Letitia Roller: Water: The Hea(r)t of it All - Glacier Melt

THE ARTISTS:

AUSTRALIA: Sally Blake-Edwards, Dan Edwards, Brenda Goggs, Dimity Kidston, Valerie Kirk, Lisa Molvig, Whitely Rosenberg, Shunyam Smith, Anton Veenstra, Diana Wood-Conroy.

Valerie Kirk, Earth: Indigo Fossil (left) Christine Sawyer, Water: Loss (right)

UK: Jackie Bennett, Janet Clark, Joyce Coulton, Jane Freear-Wyld, Victoria Green, Beryl Hammill, Lindsey Marshall, Christine Paine, Christine Sawyer, Mike Wallace.

Anton Veenstra, Earth: 3 Steps 2 Heaven (left) Christine Paine, Fire: Born of Fire

USA: Janet Austin, Mary Cost, Alex Friedman, Tricia Goldberg, Mary Lane, Tommye McClure Scanlin, LaDonna Mayer, Letitia Roller, Kathe Todd-Hooker, Sarah Warren.

Dimity Kidston, Water: Waves Rolling In (left) Lindsey Marshall, Four Elements: Water, Air, Fire and Earth (right)

The staff at the Bob Owens Gallery did a great job hanging this show.  So often small work is jammed together, and in this case, there was plenty of space so one could appreciate each tapestry.

Many thanks to Jane Freear-Wyld, who devoted herself to making this all happen. Here is her tapestry.

Jane Freear-Wyld, Earth: Canadian Rockies at Dawn