Tapestry Enchantment

In 2006 I attended the ATA Tapestry Workshop/Retreat after Convergence in Grand Rapids. I was in Jane Kidd’s class; she is a fantastic artist and teacher and was a big inspiration. After 27 years of weaving tapestries, I am not looking for a lot of technical help, but can always use wisdom and guidance. It was also a blast to hang out on a college campus with a bunch of other tapestry weavers.So when ATA announced the 2010 program, there was no hesitation. I have never visited New Mexico before, and as you can tell from my previous posts, I was not disappointed one bit. In fact, I have promised to go back again, hopefully many times.

At the end of Convergence we hurried to St John’s College in Santa Fe to register and unload our luggage. The reason for the rush was  the opening reception for “Enchanted Pathways,” the biennial non-juried small format tapestry exhibit, that evening.

This exhibit was at the William and Joseph Gallery on prestigious Canyon Rd. What a road! Gallery after gallery after gallery!

As befits a small tapestry exhibit, the room it was in was also quite small, and full of visitors during the opening reception. We had to (or GOT to!) walk through the other rooms of the gallery and admire some amazing artworks. This exhibit continues to grow; there were 179 tapestries by artists in 12 countries, and 28 US states. The maximum size is 10 x 10 inches. 

There is a catalog for Enchanted Pathways, which can be purchased from ATA (American Tapestry Alliance), the sponsoring organization. As with all ATA projects, the work was done by dedicated volunteers. Letty Roller and her team did a fabulous job photographing the pieces and hanging the show.

I had enough time to make a quick visit to the Jane Sauer Gallery just up the road. WOW! I have never seen a gallery that included so many interesting artists in so many different media. Glass (I adore glass), paintings, sculpture, fiber, mixed media. I wish I’d had more time. The website says “At the forefront of innovation and excellence in a variety of media.” Yeah, definitely.

Back to St Johns, I loved my room. It was very plain, but very functional. White walls and floor, sturdy wooden furniture. Large desk and book case, adequate closet, bureau and bed. My window looked out onto trees and a distant view of the mountains. 

We had perfect weather, at least if you’re like me and appreciate a good monsoon, which arrived at lunch time one day, and knocked out the power for a few hours. OK, weaving with no lights was a little challenging.

I have always been fascinated with St John’s College, with one campus in Annapolis, MD and the other one in Santa Fe. According to their website

“The all-required course of study is based on the reading, study, and discussion of the most important books of the Western tradition. There are no majors and no departments; all students follow the same program.

Students study from the classics of literature, philosophy, theology, psychology, political science, economics, history, mathematics, laboratory sciences, and music. No textbooks are used. The books are read in roughly chronological order, beginning with ancient Greece and continuing to modern times.”

So nice to know there are still students interested in getting this kind of education, but of course, we were there for something else entirely.   

I took James Koehler’s workshop “Layers of Meaning.”  The other workshop was Lynne Curran’s “Hand and Heart.”  I wrote an article about James’s workshop for the ATA newsletter, Tapestry Topics. It should be coming out soon so you’ll have to read about it there.

I can tell you that I came home with a folder full of notes and handouts, and a head full of inspiration and ideas.

Although I was not in Lynne’s class, I enjoyed her slide lecture, and many nice chats with her, and with my fellow students .

A high point of the retreat was a field trip to James’s studio. 

We carpooled over there and admired his looms, yarns, workspace, tapestries, art collection and garden.

The only thing I regret was not having time for more explorations of Santa Fe, but that was my own fault! I’ll be back! 

 

Technorati Tags: Tapestry Weaving,Weaving New Mexico,American Tapestry Alliance

More on New Mexico

Saturday morning I took a brief driving tour of Albuquerque’s Old Town, in search of the Rattlesnake Museum.

Old town is lovely, and the museum was on my itinerary because my favorite celebrity, “TV’s Craig Ferguson” has a rattlesnake mug he got there.

It makes a good conversation starter on the Late Late Show. The Museum is really just a small gift shop with some tanks of snakes in the back room. I do like snakes, so it was fun.

The best part of Convergence is the Vendor’s Hall, with all the yarn, books, textiles, looms, spinning wheels etc. This would have been a good time to leave the credit cards in a safe place… I had a great time chatting with the folks in the Glimakra booth. They have a new cute little counterbalance loom called Julia. It’s tempting. I bought a skein of gorgeous very thin Swedish wool called Mora, that is perfect for tapestry. Unfortunately it only comes in a large skein, but I’m using a lot of black, so that’s what I bought.

I missed the Weaving Southwest booth, and now I wish I had tried the Rio Grande spinning wheel, it is very intriguing. I always loved spinning on the great wheel at Slater Mill, when I was a tour guide there. This one is similar but you get to sit down and use a foot treadle.

I visited the Convergence exhibit hall, and saw my own tapestry hanging in Small Expressions. The Eye Dazzlers exhibit was also great, and included one of Tommye Scanlin’s tapestries, called “Spring Profusion.”  Isn’t it wonderful? I love the earthy yet ethereal colors, and the spirally ferns are so expressive.

I also got a look at the preview of the Navajo Rug Auction. So many stunning rugs.

Then Marcy and Tommye and I drove to Village Wools to see Kathe Todd-Hooker’s show. I had to make a concerted effort to ignore all that gorgeous yarn calling out to me as I walked to the gallery in the back of the shop! 

I have seen many photos of Kathe’s tapestries, and a few actual tapestries, but seeing a bunch of them all in one place was awe-inspiring. These two tapestries, “Kona Pink” (left) and “So Many Chances” include threads that came from my mother’s life long collection of sewing thread. Kathe says she used Mom’s threads in the deep greens and turquoise, and in the orange in another tapestry “Kona Orange.”

We lived overseas for 18 years, and Mom sewed most of our clothes, as well as evening wear for herself. Her collection came from South Africa, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland and England.

When I inherited her sewing stuff, I sent a bunch of the threads to Kathe, and I’m so happy she has been able to use them in creating beauty.

Next up, the opening reception for the show Interwoven Traditions: New Mexico and Bauhaus. I had the address which I had copied from an email I received from somewhere listing all the exhibits. We had GPS in the rental car, so what could possibly go wrong? I’m still wondering where that address came from, because when we arrived, about 20 minutes SOUTHEAST of Albuquerque, this is what we found. Yes, a dirt parking lot with an RV and some guys on dirt bikes. The real gallery was about 20 minutes NORTHWEST of the city, so we didn’t have time to get there before ATA’s Enchanted Evening social back at the Convention Center. So far we had missed 2 excellent exhibits, and I was really bummed out.

Enchanted Evening was a nice chance to catch up with old friends and meet new ones.  There was a dinner afterwards at a very nice restaurant. Then Sunday was the ATA Forum, “Unraveling the Creative Strand,” with slide lectures by James Koehler and Lynne Curran. Both are amazing artists, and their talks were informative, entertaining and inspiring. After the forum we took off for St John’s College in Santa Fe, for the ATA Educational Retreat, “Tapestry Enchantment.”  More on that in the next installment!

Farewell Our Furry Friend

Xerox was the best kitty ever. She was always gentle and loved sleeping on our laps. She never peed anywhere she should not have. She never climbed on the kitchen counters, never mind stealing the chicken that was defrosting on the counter like other cats!

She loved to be outdoors, at least in warm weather, but never had a flea! Apparently she was immune. We should have cloned her. She was an incompetent hunter and never caught anything but crickets until she was 8 years old and accidentally cornered a chipmunk.

Then she would occasionally leave us a mouse or chipmunk that was completely intact, just dead. I think she played with them til they died of fright. She only weighed 6.5 pounds, so even in old age people assumed she was a kitten.

She was an expert at sneaking into closets, attics, or anywhere else that was behind a closed door. You’d open the door briefly and never see her sneak in, then 12 hours later you’d wonder “Where could Xerox be?”  The most impressive was her recent venture into the warming oven!

It’s hard to get used to being catless after 16 years and 8 months (actually we had 2 other cats before, who lived to be 16, so it’s more like 32 years). I keep looking around to make sure she’s not hiding in my studio before I close it up. I imagine I hear her calling me from outside the kitchen door, or asking me to put water in the bathtub.

Yes, she loved drinking out of bathtubs and sinks.

About 4 months ago she suddenly went blind. It was obvious when she started walking into walls.

Blind cats also vocalize, which is a bit different from the usual meows. More like AAARROOOL. When she went blind we discovered she didn’t hear very well either. The vet told us her retinas had detached and were all folded up, possibly due to kidney disease or high blood pressure.

She still seemed to enjoy life until last Thursday, and we enjoyed her company so much.

We miss her terribly.

Weft Interlock Front and Back

The subject of weft interlocks came up on the tapestry list, and since I had written about it on this blog a few months ago, I jumped right in with an opinion.

Donna asked if it looks the same on both sides. I said I thought it did, and then she asked if I could post photos of the front and back of my samples.

Well, I am not at home, so my first reaction was that I could not do this. I hate to admit defeat, though, so I thought “I can just weave a small sample and photograph it.”

Although I have 3 portable looms here with me, they all have projects on them so I can’t just weave a sample and cut it off to see both sides.

I looked around for something I could put a warp on, and spotted a nice little chair.

Bran Flakes? You might be wondering how they function in tapestry weaving.

Is this why they call it Fiber Art?

I use a piece of the box to put between the 2 layers of warp so I don’t go crazy looking at both layers at once. I also use small strips of the box as a header at the beginning.

It’s only 12 warps wide and it took about 45 minutes to warp it up, weave the sample, cut it off and photograph it.

Unfortunately I forgot I would be looking at the back, so I had some short weft ends hanging out and to make the photo look nicer I just snipped them off leaving some fuzzy areas.

My conclusion after performing this scientific experiment?

The weft interlock looks the same on the front and the back; but don’t take my word for it, try a sample yourself!

It’s not that hard after all!

 

Small Expressions and Chaotic Fragments

One of the exhibits I saw at Convergence was “Small Expressions.” It was an excellent show, and I was honored to be included,  but a bit disappointed that it was in the Convention Center instead of in a gallery.

The organizers worked very hard to find gallery space in Albuquerque, but it was just not available. After all the work organizing, jurying, mailing and hanging this show, it’s too bad it was only up for 5 days!

The juror was Rebecca A.T. Stevens, Consulting Curator of Contemporary Textiles,  at The Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. If I remember correctly from past years, there will be photos of the Small Expressions pieces in an upcoming issue of Shuttle, Spindle and Dyepot, the magazine of the Handweavers Guild of America.

My piece in Small Expressions was Chaotic Fragments: Part 4 (above right), 9x9 inches. It’s the 4th in the Chaotic Fragments series, and that whole series is based on a larger tapestry called Chaos, which is 24 x 19 inches.

Chaotic Fragments: Part 1 (left), 10x10 inches. In this piece I included some very thin strands of dark red and blue, so that the black is not really black.

Chaotic Fragments: Part 2 (right), 10x10 inches. A detail of this was on the cover of the catalog for Connections: Small Tapestry International. The designs for these first 2 came from fragments that were cut into strips and then reassembled.

Chaotic Fragments: Part 3 (below left), 14x14 inches has been accepted into the American Tapestry Biennial 8, which opens in Lincoln, Nebraska in September.

More about this exhibit in a previous blog post. Excuse the repetition, but I thought it would be fun to see all 5 of these together!

I’m working on 2 more tapestries in this series, one large like Chaos, and one small.

I’ve had a great time experimenting with different ways to make black and white marks in tapestry. Below is Chaos, 19x24 inches. All the Fragments come from this original cartoon, cut into pieces.

As I wrote in the ATB8 catalog, these tapestries evolved from a 27 year old oil painting of my messy studio table…..

there was copying, dismembering, tracing, then in a flash, the fallen cone of yarn morphed into a black hole in the universe.  “I had found the chaos I was seeking.”

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