AMERICAN TAPESTRY ALLIANCE A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY Then and Now HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION
2016 American Tapestry Alliance, with permission from all contributing authors. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part is prohibited without written permission. Requests to reproduce material in this publication may be forwarded to the American Tapestry Alliance. Then and Now Phoebe McAfee, Theme Co-ordinator pg. 5 Co-Directors Letter pg. 3 Theme Articles Jim Brown pg. 5 by James Nelson Jim Brown and Hal Painter pg. 7 by Sharon Crary Remembering Jim Brown pg. 8 by Tricia Goldberg Profile: Jim Brown pg. 11 Tapestry Tool Box and The American Tapestry Alliance by Claudia Chase pg. 12 Panorama of Tapestry and Jim Brown pg. 12 by Thoma Ewen Jim Brown speaking at ATA s Silver Anniversary pg. 16 Presidents or Co-Directors & Board Members pg. 16 Then and Now: ATA Mastheads and Logos pg. 17 Selections by Linda Wallace pg. 19 In Conversation: Erin M. Riley and Tommye McClure Scanlin pg.32 In Conversation: Natalie Novak and Phoebe McAfee pg. 36 Reviews - books, exhibitions, web resources A More Beautiful Question or How Ordering Cable TV Lead to a Two Week Cartooning Course with Nancy Jackson by Dorothy Thursby pg. 40 A Report on Elemental Tapestry: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water by Deborah Corsini pg. 43 ATA s 2016 Members Retreat pg. 45 Flexible Lines: Aino Kajaniemi, Instructor pg. 45 by Janette Meetze Pulling Warp/Pushing Ideas: Susan Iverson, Instructor pg. 47 by Sue Weil ATA News pg. 50 The Back Page pg. 52 Contact ATA Director of Member Services Michael Rohde board@americantapestryalliance.org Director of Resources Susan Iverson resources@americantapestryalliance.org Treasurer Regina Dale treasurer@americantapestryalliance.org Membership Chair Patricia Dunston membership@americantapestryalliance.org Education Committee Chair Terry Olson education@americantapestryalliance.org Mentoring Program Terri Stewart tksweaver@verizon.net Exhibition Chair Margo Macdonald exhibitions@americantapestryalliance.org American Tapestry Biennial 11, Co-Chairs Elaine Duncan elaine@elaineduncan.com Terri Bryson 2brysons@gmail.com Small Tapestry International 5, Exhibition Chair Deborah Corsini ata@deborahcorsini.com Catalog Distribution Deb Shoenberger bck2garden@gmail.com Awards Chair Dorothy Clews ataaward@americantapestryalliance.org Promotions Chair Open promotions@americantapestryalliance.org Volunteer Coordinator Donna Wynn volunteer@americantapestryalliance.org Web Editor Tikka Wilson webeditor@americantapestryalliance.org TEx@ATA Gallery Valerie Kirk, Program Manager Valerie.Kirk@anu.edu Ashli Tyre, Website ashlityre@hotmail.com Artist Pages Sarah Warren artistpages@americantapestryalliance.org Tapestry Topics Leslie Munro newsletter@americantapestryalliance.org Executive Director Mary Lane director@americantapestryalliance.org Please note: all page numbers are linked to pages Cover Image: Jan Moore s triptych River, Take Me Along with young admirers, photo used with permission.
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY Co-Directors Letter, Winter 2016 We welcome you to the Winter 2016 edition of Tapestry Topics and offer a sincere thank you to all who participated in the writing, editing and publication of this issue. It is always interesting to look back at the history of an organization, and it is with great fondness and respect that so many people responded to the call for memories of Jim Brown and the beginning days of ATA. This is such a meaningful issue for all of us within ATA. Jim Brown was the person who breathed life into the idea that became ATA. With his vision and years of dedication, this organization grew and is now thriving with a large U.S., and a growing international, membership. This issue is dedicated to the memory of this wonderful man. In August many of us met in Milwaukee for several active days that included: Convergence; the opening of Tapestry Unlimited at the Public Library (special thanks to Janna Maria Vallee, Ruth Manning, Lindsey Marshall, Susan Rubendall, and Fran Williamson); the Speakers Forum and biennial Members Meeting; and the 2016 Members Retreat. We enjoyed wonderful conversations, casual and formal exchanges of ideas, and a broadening of technical skills for some. In general, everything went smoothly and Milwaukee was a lovely host city. ATB 11 was well received at the South Bend Museum of Art, and had a lovely opening in November at the Mulvane Art Museum at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. It has been wonderful to see images from these two venues and to know that so many people have been able to see the show in person. Next the exhibition will be at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles. Congratulations again to all of the artists in this exciting show. This show will live on through its beautiful catalog thanks to Anna Kocherovsky, who worked so hard on its publication. Thanks to all of you who submitted work to Small Tapestry International 5: Crossroads. The results of Rudi Dundas jurying will be announced in January. In November Michael joined Christine Laffer for a long weekend in Chicago to represent ATA at SOFA on the Navy Pier. Always an exciting event they had the opportunity to spread the word about ATA and to talk to the many people who attend this event. Now that it is winter and we are looking back over this wonderfully productive year we can be proud of our accomplishments and also thankful to all of the volunteers who keep ATA vital. Of course we are also looking forward to the future and all of the exciting programing coming up. We hope to see many of you in San Jose for the events related to ATB 11 and we encourage you to enter work into The Grand Gesture and other exhibitions that present opportunities for you to share your work with the art loving public. Susan & Michael Susan Iverson Michael Rohde 3
HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION THANKS TO OUR ADVERTISERS Between Tapestry & Etc. Kathe Todd Hooker Canadian Tapestry Centre Creative Coastal Retreats - Pam Patrie Damascus Fiber Arts School Glimakra USA Leslie Mitchell Lost Pond Looms Craig Vogel Mirrix Looms Claudia Chase & Elena Zuyok Rebecca Mezoff Tapestry Studio Surface Design Association Weaversbazaar http://betweenandetc.com/tapestry-market-place/ http://www.oakvilleartsstudio.com/ http://www.pampatriestudios.com http://www.damascusfiberartsschool.com http://www.glimakrausa.com http://lostpondlooms.weebly.com http://www.mirrixlooms.com http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/ http://www.surfacedesign.org http://www.weaversbazaar.com/ pg. 30 pg. 14 pg. 15 pg. 31 pg. 19 pg. 13 pg. 34 pg. 19 pg. 42 pg. 10 pg. 31 Advertise with ATA Do you teach classes? Offer yarn dyeing services? Sell weaving supplies or equipment? ATA is now offering advertising space in both Tapestry Topics and in the Membership Directory. Ads are good for one year and can be updated quarterly. Discounts are offered for members and for advertisers who take out ads in both publications. Read more about our ads here. Submit your ad online here. For more information email us! info@americantapestryalliance.org ATA Social Media Links and Resources For additional resources visit the ATA website at 4
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY ATA Then and Now: Why I decided to co-ordinate this issue of Tapestry Topics by Phoebe McAfee Before there was ATA, before San Francisco Tapestry Workshop, there was The Yarn Depot on Sutter Street in downtown San Francisco. Fresh from a two-year apprenticeship with Rachel Brown, I arrived in San Francisco at age 25, and worked at the Yarn Depot for five years. Hal Painter was a regular customer. The weaving shop was more than a retail yarn store. Weavers from around the world shopped, taught classes, told their stories. Helen Pope introduced us to a generation of fiber artists. A West Coast flowering of weaving and tapestry was just beginning, and we soaked it up. In 1975, I entered the MA program in Textiles at San Francisco State University. The next year, Hal Painter and Jim Brown took their bicentennial tour of America, and returned with a slide show for our assembled textile students. From that trip, ATA was born. I am so grateful to have known them. Phoebe McAfee Jim Brown by James Nelson This article is excerpted from a talk given at Jim Brown s memorial service by James Nelson in April of 2016. My story about Jim Brown started in 1983 when I was a director of an arts center in Yuma, Arizona. Jim and his partner Hal met with me and said that they wanted to hold a retrospective tapestry exhibit there. I said Great, what is it? and they said Oh just a few Jim Brown and Hal Painter, Chiloquin, Oregon, 1968. weavings that are coming from all over the world. I said, You re going to take care of all of it? All the shipping, all the receiving, everything? Yes, said Jim, That s what I do to help support Hal s work. The exhibition was a wonderful tribute to 40 years of Hal s weaving career. I learned a lot about these two gentlemen and their commitment to weaving through a two-year process of collecting and installing over 100 tapestries. In 1993, ten years after I met Jim, I received an invitation to Hal s memorial at the San Francisco Art Institute where Hal went to school. Jim wanted to know if I d be willing to help and I told him of course! When I arrived I was presented with a script (Jim liked to be organized) and I was the fifth of seven presenters. I was to talk about the Yuma exhibition and my experience of working with them. After the talks we went to the roof where every one of us released balloons and special thoughts about our dear friend. At Hal s memorial service Jim said that he d like to come visit me, as I was living at Sea Ranch just north of San Francisco. One weekend he showed up with a lamb roast. He said If you ve got an oven, I ve got a lamb. He stayed that weekend and did some essential mourning for Hal while looking out the window to the ocean waves. It was an opportunity for him to finally find some peace. At the time, Jim had acquired a small job working on a book project in Tiberon. Occasionally he d call up and say Do you want some lamb? My friends would often join us and it was great fun getting to know Jim better and hear many stories about Hal and the weaving life they shared. The business where I worked had sold and Jim offered me his home in Chiloquin, Oregon, for temporary storage of my household treasures. He had a huge house that was hand built by Hal and Jim and both their fathers. They called it HalBro House! During that time Jim found out that he had inoperable prostate cancer and that it had probably spread. The doctor said that he had six months or maybe six years. It was hard for Jim to learn this news after losing Hal, Hal s father, both his mother and father, and many close friends. I said Don t worry, I ll hang out with you and we ll be a team. The next time he went to the hospital they said Who are you? and I said that I was Jim s son; this allowed me to attend his appointments and have access to his medical information. I think at that moment in the doctor s office we just adopted each other. So that s how I got my dad and how Jim got his son. I told Jim that if he died first that I d hold his hand, but if I died first he d have to hold my hand. That was the deal. Twenty-two years after his diagnosis I lost my closest friend and father. Earlier in Jim s life he sold insurance and sold cars, but finally ended up moving to San Francisco. He worked for twelve years for United Airlines because he wanted to travel, and boy did he ever get to travel. He won an around- 5
HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION gave to her. Jim had planned 12 scenes of operatic stages. The weaving hut at the HalBro House, Chiloquin, Oregon, 1974. the-world raffle ticket. He went to Japan twice. He went to Hawaii on a ship, didn t get off, came back and got on another ship and went back again. Jim also went to Cuba for a couple of years as part of the Foreign Service. He was sent to code breaking school and was assigned to Cuba in 1952. Jim told a lot of stories and we weren t always able to validate them. But it is true that he did sing at St. Johns, the President s Church in Washington D.C. He sang in the church choir for two years and loved it. He said that he remembered meeting the Roosevelts, Franklin and Eleanor, at the church. Over the years Jim continued to create tapestries, and at the same time focused on the American Tapestry Alliance, which he and Hal created in 1982. He managed many traveling exhibits of juried shows around the U.S. and in Europe, featuring internationally recognized tapestry artists. A highlight of his career was being honored in 2007 at ATA s Silver Anniversary Celebration, celebrating 25 years of this important art organization. In 1970 Jim and Hal went to Chiloquin and began the Weaving in the Woods workshops. They started building a house which took ten years. Every summer, they offered workshops. Jim also learned to dye yarns and then taught classes on wool dying during the summer workshops on the Sprague River. The week before Jim passed he was looking in a mirror and thinking about Hal s final tapestry, Reflecting, which was hanging above his favorite recliner. When I came in the room he said, I think I m going to write a book about that. Everyone wants to know what it means. I was with Hal the whole time he wove it and he never once mentioned who those people are or what it means. I said, And you didn t ask him? No, Jim said, It wasn t my position. That shows the respectful relationship Jim had with Hal. Many artists keep their feelings about their work private and Jim respected that over those 32 years. Jim liked to dance and he liked to perform. In fact, when he went to his 60th class reunion, he went around the room saying Hells Bells, what are you doing, Martha? Nobody in the room had a clue what this crazy man was doing. But he had been in a high school play, Everybody s Crazy, and that was his line. He assumed that everyone would remember the play. Finally, when he got up to talk, he said, By the way, I am Sir Godfrey and that was my line from Hells Bells, our senior play! Jim met Hal through taking weaving classes. He loved the idea of weaving and the creative artist lifestyle; he also liked the therapy of it. He was working for United Airlines at that time and weaving became very important to him. One of the subjects that Jim wove were scenes from operas, including a portrait of Beverly Sills, which he Jim Brown giving Beverly Sills the tapestry he wove for her, 1977. 6
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY My experience living with Jim was amazing; he was always there for me, yet he never interfered. We moved twelve times over two decades. Our last move was to the sixth floor of a two-bedroom apartment in Portland, near the VA and Oregon Health Sciences University. We knew that this was the last chapter and probably the last move. Jim was a gentleman and it was an honor to know him. He was my closest friend, advisor and confident and a true gentleman to the end. He enriched many lives through his kindness and humor; he will be long remembered. Jim Brown and Hal Painter by Sharon Crary James Nelson and Jim Brown celebrating Jim s birthday, 2015. James Nelson has been immersed in the arts community for 50 years; beginning as an arts educator in public schools and advancing to chair of a college fine arts department. His activities have included: Art Center & Art Museum Director, CFO at a fine art printing company, Portland Art Museum PAM Rental Sales Gallery Manager, corporate art project coordinator and, currently, a not-for-profit arts consultant. When a couple of traveling tapestry artists were coming by Baton Rouge, Louisiana, during the Year of America s Bicentennial in 1976, our weaving guild, Bayou Yarn Benders, jumped at the chance to have a tapestry workshop. Jim Brown and Hal Painter led us from the warping to an almost finished product before they were on to the next leg of their cross country tapestry teaching trek. I had been weaving two years and only had a picture frame with nails loom. For design inspiration Jim and Hal instructed us to go out on the Louisiana State University campus (where we were meeting) and pick up any kind of odds and ends. On our return we were to take those objects and incorporate them in some way, shape, or form into a hopefully artistic composition. I picked up a smashed soda pop can and a fallen branch whose shapes I combined in my design. My warp was cotton rug warp and my weft was some gnarly hand-spun wool, poly-wool blend and some other mill end rug wools. However, even with the shortcomings in my equipment and materials for my initial tapestry experience, the seed was planted by these two charming gentlemen. I kept that first piece with all its quirks and smile when I think about how Jim and Hal s journey started my journey in tapestry. Sharon Crary is a long time weaver of weft face rugs and added tapestry weaving to her fiber fun about ten years ago. Sharon Crary, My First Tapestry, 14 in x 16 in, 10 or 12 epi, 1976, photo: Sharon Crary. Cotton warp, hand spun wool, poly-wool, rug wool mill-ends. Collection of the weaver. 7
HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION Remembering Jim Brown by Tricia Goldberg I met Jim Brown and Hal Painter when they stopped by, as so many people did, when I was a weaver at the San Francisco Tapestry Workshop in the early 1980s. It was wonderful to have a place for tapestry weavers and exciting when people would stop in from all over. Jim and Hal began The American Tapestry Alliance in 1982, with a vision, in Jim s words, to build a support system which might help tapestry artisans gain some recognition by sharing information and resources, sponsoring exhibitions, and promoting awareness of contemporary tapestry to a wider audience. Jim had apprenticed with Hal; they taught tapestry workshops, and they followed this by starting ATA. I joined ATA in connection with the Panorama of Tapestry exhibition at the 1986 Convergence in Toronto. I was thrilled that my tapestry, Burano, was included, excited to go to Toronto from San Francisco, and happy to meet the tiny subset of tapestry weavers within the thousands of textile enthusiasts at the Handweavers of America biennial conference. In rereading my earliest issues of Tapestry Topics and my personal correspondence with Jim, I sense the same care and deep interest to share our love of this expressive textile art form then as now, in 2016, continuing for thirty years. My oldest copy of Tapestry Topics (July 1986) included an interview with Jim. Jim and Hal and their fathers had built their house and studio over an eight-year period in Chiloquin, Oregon. When I got married in 1987 my husband and I drove north from San Francisco and spent a night there with Jim, Hal, and Hal s father. I wish I remembered more, I m sure we talked a lot about the growing interest in tapestry weaving. My husband and I fondly remember their quirky, inventively designed and decorated home. Jim said he had been interested in textiles for 20 years when he met Hal. He was struck by the calmness and quiet of his vocation and later asked to apprentice with him. In 1976 they had their own bicentennial, traveling 30,000 miles in 18 months offering workshops, and continued to teach together while Hal also designed and wove his own tapestries. Asked about ATA s first five years, Jim said that it was hard to convince weavers that banding together would have an impact, but that he believed strongly in the quality of their work. He wanted ATA to help artists gain recognition. The Panorama of Tapestry exhibition was a tribute to Jean Lurçat (1892 1966). Most of the artists in the catalog continued as tapestry weavers, and I wonder whether this would have happened without a community to support and encourage us. Most of us design and weave our own work in small studios, exploring our individual expression, but are happy to be part of a bigger tapestry community. Two years later ATA planned an ambitious touring exhibition, World Tapestry Today, in conjunction with the Victorian Tapestry Symposium, part of the Australian Bicentennial celebration. The exhibition toured for a year beginning in Melbourne, traveling to Chicago, Memphis, New York, Heidelberg and Stuttgart, Germany, and Aubusson, France. I was able to see the exhibition in Chicago when I was there for my second Convergence. The symposium included an unjuried small-format tapestry exhibition, World Weavers Wall. A catalog arrived in my mail unexpectedly, and I have shared it with countless students. Tricia Goldberg, Burano, 29 in x 95 in, 1985. 8
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY For my piece in World Tapestry Today, Untitled Abstract, I collaborated with my friend Bonnie Boren, working from her original watercolor. After the exhibition, friends of Bonnie purchased the tapestry, and we later obtained a commission for a tapestry for a public building. I m sure having our work in the catalog helped. Hal Painter s tapestry The Imperials was also in World Tapestry Today. In his artist statement in the catalog, he says painting, drawing, print-making, and ceramics led to an accidental entry into tapestry. In the catalog introduction Jim wrote, After two decades of the fiber explosion, the tapestry makers who quietly studied and pursued their medium without feeling the need to compromise their technical training for the sake of being avant garde, finally have a chance to be seen. Jim Brown and Tricia Goldberg during ATA s Silver Anniversary Exhibition, San Jose, CA, 2007. Hal Painter, The Imperials, 75 in x 38 in. Tricia Goldberg has taught tapestry weaving for over twenty-five years. She offers small classes and individual instruction in her studio in Berkeley, California. She also travels to teach at weaving guilds, textile conferences, art centers, and museums. Tricia lectures about her designing and weaving process. She weaves commission tapestries as well as her exhibition work. Tricia is an active and founding member of Tapestry Weavers West, begun in 1985, and is also a member of the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, and the Richmond Art Center. 9
HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION Surface Design Association Innovation in Fiber, Art, & Design Join for the Journal... stay for the community www.surfacedesign.org 10
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY Profile: Jim Brown This article was originally published in Tapestry Topics, July 1986. In order to acquaint the membership with the policy-makers of ATA, Tapestry Topics will run a series of interviews with the members of the board. The series opens with an interview with the man who organized the American Tapestry Alliance and has been its director for five years, Jim Brown. Q. When and where were you born? A. I was born in Washington, D.C. November 18, 1927. Q. Where do you live now? A. I have lived the last 13 years outside a very small town called Chiloquin, Oregon. My associate and partner, Hal Painter, and I decided to move there after teaching two summers in that beautiful desert high desert country. We spent eight years building a house and studio ourselves with the help of our fathers. Q. What first attracted you to textiles or tapestry? Where and how did you become apprenticed to Hal Painter? A. Interesting that you post those two questions together as they do interact with each other. I am amazed to realize that the beginnings of my textile interest has been almost 20 years. During a rather stressful period in my job I had an occasion to be introduced to a weaver, Hal Painter, and was immediately struck by the calmness and quiet atmosphere of his vocation. I was always glad to accept invitations to any of his gatherings of crafts friends. In time, I became envious of all that serenity and asked him if he would consider having an apprentice and he accepted me. Q. Can you describe the organizational experience prior to ATA: the Oregon Summer Workshops for 11 years and the National Wool Showcase for two years? A. We decided to try the summer workshop idea in Oregon on the Sprague River. The first summer there were just four one week classes. These were outdoor classes in a grove of trees on the riverbank using Navajo-like looms. The students loved the idea and the setting and we had two-week sessions the following year for two months, and the third year I decided to give up the airlines and we moved to Oregon. This teaching experience gave us the wonderful opportunity to meet many fine craftspeople and one of our students approach us about helping to formulate Jim Brown, 2001 the National Wool Showcase. We couldn t refuse such a great idea and have always been glad to have been a part of that challenge. Q. What inspired you to form a national organization of tapestry weavers? A. In 1976 we decided to do something very unique for us so that we would always remember the bicentennial year. We became modern-day itinerant weavers much as found in colonial America, except rather than offering our services as makers of fine linens we would offer tapestry weaving workshops. We certainly succeeded in making it a memorable experience in 18 months we drove 30,000 miles from Oregon to Florida to New England with sojourns into Mexico and Canada to give workshops. It was because of that experience that we began to wonder about how those students were making out. I thought perhaps we could do something to build a support system which might help tapestry artisans gain some recognition, and discovered it was an idea well received. Q. Can you describe some of your experiences in getting ATA started and also some of the highlights and failures in its 5-year history? A. It has taken these years to build our credibility and increase our membership but we are achieving those goals. The most difficult thing personally has been trying to convince the members and prospective members that we can have an impact by banding together in making ourselves known. It has not been easy since we all have our egos that sometimes get in the way, but I believe so much in the quality of work that our members are producing and that ATA can help make their efforts more recognized. We have already achieved some worthwhile credits: a Presentation workshop in San Francisco, a national open competition for tapestry design, and our first exhibition last spring of French contemporary tapestries in San Diego. One of our disappointments was probably a blessing in disguise and that was not being accepted for a working exhibit for the New Orleans World s Fair. I believe our Toronto Convergence 86 tapestry exhibit is just the impetus that we need and I hope the membership will become more active in working to see that ATA continues making tapestry recognized as the noble art form it is. We need to produce more works and exhibit frequently. 11
HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION Tapestry Tool Box and The American Tapestry Alliance by Claudia Chase Nostalgia brought on by our recent attendance at Convergence (the Handweavers Guild of America s every two year event) led me to do some research to rediscover my tapestry past. I found a letter from Marti Fleischer who was the editor for the American Tapestry Alliance newsletter from 1994 to 2002. I met Marti through mail, and maybe even phone conversations, and soon I was writing a column for the ATA newsletter (back in the days when it was mailed to all its members). In her good-bye letter as editor she mentions that column: In 1994 we began running The Tapestry Toolbox written by Claudia Anne Chase. The article, which continued several years, lent insight into questions about looms and all related tapestry paraphernalia. Those three years of articles are buried somewhere in my attic. I apparently also became a member of the ATA Board. Thank goodness for the internet to kick start my past! I first met Marti in an elevator the day I arrived at my hotel to attend that first Convergence (it was the first Convergence for ATA as well!). I was wearing a long silk dress and my long dark hair hung way past my waist. Because there was no room in the elevator, I stood on my suitcase. Marti walked into the elevator and I recognized her right away (don t ask me how; maybe I had seen a photograph of her). I said hello and told her who I was. She looked up at this 6-foot tall woman (remember, all 5 feet 2 inches of me was standing on a suitcase) and she said: Oh my gosh, I thought you were Cher! I will never forget that first Convergence. I traveled there by car with three other weavers (I was the only tapestry weaver). I was living in Wisconsin and Convergence was in Minneapolis. The year was 1994. My greatest memory of the event was attending the tapestry exhibit and the Small Expressions exhibit. The only huge tapestries I had ever seen before included images of unicorns and castles. This exhibit was mind blowing. Most of them were huge. And every single one grabbed my full attention. I had to tear myself away. If there is ever an American Tapestry Alliance exhibit near you, GO. Once you get there, they will have to force you to leave. Inspiration abounds! This article is excerpted from a July 29, 2014 post on the Mirrix Tapestry and Bead Loom Blog. Claudia Chase began weaving tapestry on a rigid heddle loom when pregnant with her daughter Elena. Thirty-one years later, Elena and Claudia run Mirrix Tapestry & Bead Looms, Ltd., a company born twenty years ago when Claudia decided she needed to design a great portable tapestry loom. Panorama of Tapestry and Jim Brown by Thoma Ewen Panorama of Tapestry: Tribute to Jean Lurçat/En hommage à Jean Lurçat the first US/Canadian tapestry exhibition, curated by Jim Brown for the American Tapestry Alliance and Convergence 86. I was the Canadian co-ordinator for Panorama of Tapestry, collaborating as part of the Ontario Crafts Council s Convergence 86 exhibitions committee. I was thrilled to be part of the team that made this wonderful Convergence event happen. (I believe it was the first time Convergence was held in Canada, though I am not sure of that as fact.) And I had the enormous privilege of installing this exquisite tapestry exhibition at the Edward Johnson Building at the University of Toronto. I safely guarded the Lurçat tapestry that was in the exhibition in my home prior to the installation. Panorama of Tapestry was on exhibit in Toronto from June 26 to August 14, 1986. I vividly remember unpacking and unrolling the tapestries and marvelling all the while. Just to touch the works and to be responsible for the exhibition was an amazing experience. That was thirty years ago. And yet I still feel the awe and excitement looking through the catalogue that the American Tapestry Alliance published, and reading the words that Jim Brown wrote in his curatorial statement for the exhibition. I organized twelve exhibitions for Convergence 86, and three of those exhibitions were major tapestry exhibitions: Panorama of Tapestry at the Edward Johnson Building, University of Toronto; Tapestry Canada at the Hart House Art Gallery at University of Toronto; and Tapestry Makers, the group I founded of six Toronto tapestry artists at the Riverdale Farm Art Gallery, a community art gallery for which I coordinated exhibitions. I also coordinated an exhibition of Micheline Beauchemin s contemporary 12
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY tapestries for that Convergence event in Toronto. Micheline Beauchemin, one of Canada s most illustrious fibre artists, passed away in 2009. After Convergence, I continued to tour Tapestry Makers in the greater Toronto region until I moved from Toronto to Moon Rain Centre in the Gatineau Hills, north of Ottawa. That Convergence 86 event, and the rich excitement and creative nourishment of visually experiencing the works of so many international calibre tapestry artists, sowed the seeds for my future collaboration with La Triennale Internationale des Arts Textiles en Outaouais, which has just finished its third edition. I remember Jim Brown coming to visit my studio home in downtown Toronto, and saying that now he knew where the heart of tapestry was in Canada. It was such a lifeaffirmative comment for me to hear at the time, because my life in tapestry was really just beginning. In 1986, Toronto was very receptive to tapestry. As well as being home to the Ontario Crafts Council, Toronto was home to the Ontario Association of Architects and the Ontario Association of Interior Designers. Architects and interior designers actively used and promoted tapestries in their projects. And in those days they often had the freedom to select the artwork for buildings, lobbies, and offices. It was indeed a very exciting time to be a young professional tapestry artist. My daughter Gabby Ewen was a toddler at that time, it was exactly thirty years ago. I took her to many of the Convergence openings. She is now Executive Director of La Triennale. A group of the exhibiting tapestry artists in the Panorama of Tapestry exhibition came to Toronto for the opening, and later visited my studio-home in downtown Toronto for a small gathering. Among them was Susan Martin Maffei, who I met then for the first time. Happily, our paths have crossed a number of times since 1986, when Susan Martin Maffei and Archie Brennan have come to Moon Rain Centre to teach tapestry workshops, or as in 2013, when Susan and Archie exhibited as part of La Triennale, and again in the most recent 2016 Triennale where Susan participated in the Installation In Situ category along the walking path at Moon Rain Centre in the Gatineau Hills. Life passes much too quickly. I hope to continue to weave tapestries and to coordinate tapestry exhibitions, because tapestry is one of my very great loves, and tapestry has defined my life. Even more important, I urge you all, each and every one of you, to coordinate group tapestry exhibitions for your own municipal art gallery, for your closest university or college gallery, or for your local or regional public library. We have to make tapestry more public, more visible, much less rare, and much more accessible. We have to show the world it is still happening. Otherwise, the world just doesn t know. We all need to become tapestry activists, and tapestry advocates just like Jim Brown. Moon Rain Centre www.moonrain.ca Thoma Ewen is a Canadian tapestry artist who has been designing and weaving tapestries for over 40 years, working from her studio at Moon Rain Centre in Val-Des-Monts, Quebec. Thoma has exhibited her tapestries in Canada, USA, England, France, Poland, Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela and China. She directs highly praised community tapestry projects and has received numerous awards, including the Grand Prix d Excellence in the Culturiads in 2008 and 2011. Thoma is founding Artistic Director of La Triennale Internationale des Arts Textiles en Outaouais. She is the author of The Living Tapestry Workbook, a beginner s how-to-weave-tapestry manual which you can find at http://www.moonrain.ca/tapestryworkbook.html Photo: Jamie Cruickshank. FOR SALE Ashford Extra Wide Tapestry Loom/$300 Weaving space 29 in x 40 in. Quick, easy warping with revolving frame & tension adjustment Adjustable height & weaving angle Very strong, Silver Beech hardwood construction Second shed is made with leash rod & string heddles Needs small repair on one of two tension rods, great condition otherwise Contact Leslie Mitchell, Pittsburgh, Pa., grlz.rock@verizon.net 13
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HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION Jim Brown speaking at ATA s Silver Anniversary Celebration in San Jose, California, 2007 One of the biggest joys in my ten years of devotion and love for this medium was working on the exhibition, World Tapestry Today. I met so many people whose names I still recognize in the current exhibition. Some of this weekend s discussion of ATA s international membership reminds me that artists from around the world have been connected to ATA for many years. It will be important to continue to foster this global community. I am amazed at ATA s membership, at the professionalism of the organization and its long list of accomplishments. Presidents or Co-Directors Jim Brown 1982 Marti Fleischer 1993 Jean Smelker-Hugi 1996 Jackie Wollenberg 1998 Judy Schuster 2000-2002 Alex Friedman 2002-2006 Christine Laffer 2003-2006 Becky Stevens 2006-2008 Linda Wallace 2006-2008 Mary Zicafoose 2008-2016 Michael Rohde 2008 - Susan Iverson 2016 - Board Members Jim Brown and Tricia Goldberg during ATA s Silver Anniversary Exhibition, San Josa, CA, 2007. Jim Brown Hal Painter Ruth Scheuer Nancy Harvey Muriel Nezhnie Sharon Marcus Stephen Thurston Henry Ellis Marti Fleischer Tommye Scanlin Courtney Shaw Mary Dieterich Janet Fischer Karen Fricker Beverly Kent Suzanne Pretty Victor Jacoby Suzanne Pretty Jeyhan Rohani Olga Neuts Virginia Salisbury Judy Schuster Kathy Spoering Claudia Chase Jackie Wollenberg Jean Smelker-Hugi Collins Redman Barbara Heller Betty Hilton-Nash Johanna Foslien Letty Roller Pat Poggi Madeleine Darling-Tung Anne Clark Jane Ebone Joan Griffin Ruth Manning Jon Eric Riis Anne McGinn Lys Ann Shore Janet Austin Kathe Todd Hooker Alex Friedman Ellen Ramsey Christine Laffer Amy Kropitz Mary Lane Barb Richards Becky Stevens Linda Wallace Linda Weghorst Mary Zicafoose Michael Rohde Rosalee Skrenes Elaine Duncan Diane Wolf Tricia Goldberg Kathy Marcel Sarah Swett Margo Macdonald Tal Landeau Pat Dunston Barb Brophy Kimberly Brandel Terry Olson Susan Iverson Regina Dale Dorothy Clews 16
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY Then and Now: ATA Mastheads and Logos 1983. January 1986. October 1986. 17
HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION 1994. Fall 2002. Summer 2003. 2011. AMERICAN TAPESTRY ALLIANCE A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY 18
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY Selections Linda Wallace was asked to select two tapestries from each American Tapestry Biennial and Small Tapestry International exhibition for which we have digital images to be included in this issue of the newsletter. This is what she says about the decision making process: Each of the American Tapestry Biennial and Small Tapestry International exhibitions is filled with tapestries of excellence, displaying a broad variety of approaches to our medium. It seemed nearly impossible to pick just two from each show. In case you are wondering about the way I went about this job, I ll share some of my process with you. I needed rules! First. This was a selection made by me. The selections are, necessarily, coloured by my own preferences, by the pieces that grabbed me as I flipped through the catalogues (again and again). Beyond that: an artist could only have one image selected. I tried to find a balance that would highlight skill and creativity, image and abstraction and to keep the artists geographic location balanced. It was similar to being a curator, except that I was choosing from catalogues and not digital images. I couldn t see all twenty images at one time, so I tried to find two pieces in each exhibition that either worked well together, or bounced off each other. The job turned out to be far more difficult than I had anticipated. I made and remade the list, as I thought of new considerations, twists and subtleties. I could easily put together another list, and then another. There were so many beautiful tapestries. Growing up in a Vancouver Island beach house, living in the High Arctic and aboard a series of boats, Linda Wallace developed an interest in the edges of her world. A background as a registered nurse and a mid-life BFA from the Alberta College of Art and Design developed her passionate interest in feminism, women s lives and women s health. After five years on the Board of the American Tapestry Alliance (Co-Director for three years), she returned to her studio to research, draw, and weave full time. A recipient of one of ATA s Teitelbaum Trust awards, her tapestries and drawings are in public collections nationally, and private collections internationally. Her work as artist and curator is recognized within the tapestry medium and outside it, as evidenced by articles in Fiberarts, Textile, American Style and Fiber Art Now. Glimakra USA ALL your weaving needs A long tradition of quality -- Looms -- Accessories -- Swedish yarn www.glimakrausa.com orders@glimakrausa.com 1-541-246-8679 19
HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION Connections Mihaela Mirela Grigore, Stealing the Stone, 7 in x 10.5 in. Kathe Todd Hooker, What Spider Woman Could Have Told Icarus, 8 in x 4.5 in, photo: Kathe Todd-Hooker. Embroidery floss, sewing thread and buttonhole twist. 20
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY STI 2 Clare Coyle, Carving the Marks, 3 in x 6 in, photo: Clare Coyle. Wool, silk, cotton, linen. Susan Crary, Going Through the Motions, 10 in x 9 in, photo: Sharon Crary. Wool, cotton. 21
HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION STI 3 Dorothy Clews, The Space Between, 8 in x 5 in, photo: Dorothy Clews. Seine twine, raffia, antique tapestry. Joyce Hayes, Etude 4, 10.5 in x 11.13 in, photo: Cecil Hayes. Linen warp, cotton sewing thread weft, rayon soumak 22
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY STI 4 Janet Austin, Anticipation, 42.35 in x 8 in, photo: Janet Austin. Wool, linen, cotton. Becky Stevens, Huff n Puff, 10 in x 9 in, photo: Dick Stevens. Wool on cotton and wire warps. 23
HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION ATB 6 Margrethe Agger, Day and Night Butterflies, 2.14 m x 1.75 m, photo: John Olsen. Spelsau wool. Christine Laffer, Cloth of Construction, 102 in x 138 in, photo: Jack Toolin. Wool. 24
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY ATB 7 Barbara Heller, The Shaman, 51 in x 32 in, photo: Ted Clark, Image This. Linen warp, wool weft, cotton, linen, synthetics. Alexandra Friedman, Flow 1, 32 in x 27 in, photo: Kate Cameron. Cotton, braided cotton ribbon, wool. 25
HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION ATB 8 Anne Naustdal, Arid Landscape 53 in x 57 in, photo: Kim Müller. Linen, coconut fiber, gold leaf. Joan Baxter, Hallaig 63 in x 39.4 in, Wool, linen, flax weft, cotton warp. 26
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY ATB 9 Thomas Cronenberg, Daheim (At Home), 61 in x 43.7 in, Linen, wool, silk, mercerized cotton. Susan Iverson, Verdant 51 in x 88 in x 6 in, Wool, linen, glass. 27
HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION ATB 10 Lialia Kuchma, BluRose, 64 in x 71 in, photo: Lialia Kuchma. wool weft, cotton warp. Misako Wakamatsu, Complications, 12 in x 52 in, photo: Misako Wakamatsu. Silk cloth and linen yarn. 28
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY ATB 11 Marie-Thumette Brichard, Laminaires 3, 67 in x 49 in, photo: Hervé Cohonner. Wool and silk. Julia Mitchell, Edge of the Pond 5, 51 in x 28 in, photo: Gary Mirando Photography. Wool, silk and linen. 29
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HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION In Conversation: Erin M. Riley and Tommye McClure Scanlin Erin and Tommye carried out their conversation via email, separately answering several questions from Mary Lane and Phoebe McAfee, the Theme Coordinator. Erin s answers are noted as E: and Tommye s as T: T: I have known and admired Erin Riley s work for several years and I was pleased to be able to facilitate her 2011 visit to the University of North Georgia where she was a guest speaker at a symposium about censorship and art. While there she also met with weaving students, showed several of her tapestries, and talked to them about her work. Erin Riley s tapestries are always thought provoking, and whether one regards them as shocking and controversial, or brave and amazing, they are all beautifully designed, and woven with great passion. I feel Erin is one of the bright lights of the next generation of tapestry makers and I was happy to be asked to have a conversation with her. E: A friend pointed me to the history of weaving in Buddhism and I find it s almost how I approach weaving as a process. Weaving was a means to embark on a lifelong journey on the loom, from plain white cloth to the intricate designs of the black hamsa, from the mundane Erin M. Riley, Things Left Behind, 96 in x 100 in, 6 epi, 2016, photo: Erin M. Riley. Hand dyed wool, cotton warp. to the supermundane. It is sad to realize that textiles in Mae Chaem and elsewhere in the country have lost the connection to a journey through life in a tradition that was once dominant but that now is powerless and even irretrievably lost. * It s a tangent but definitely how I think about weaving - as a lifelong journey. How did you get involved with tapestry weaving? What enticed you? How did you learn to weave tapestry? E: I took Intro to Weaving in college and the basic class structure was balanced weaving, warp faced weaving, and weft faced weaving. It was interesting for me to see something so new and challenging. I was focused on being a painter out of lack of knowledge of textiles, but realized I could paint with yarn instead. Tommye Scanlin, Black Walnut, 7 in x 6 in, 15 epi, 2016, photo: Tim Barnwell. Linen, hand dyed (black walnut) wool, cotton, silk, hemp. T: I first began as a self-taught fabric weaver, but soon started taking lots of weaving workshops. Later I got an MFA with concentration in weaving. I was always seeking ways to make images with weaving, trying lots of methods. I avoided tapestry because I didn t think I d have the discipline to stick with it until I could do it in the way I d want to. That changed when I saw the 1988 World Tapestry Today exhibit in Chicago and I knew that nothing but tapestry would satisfy my desire to make woven images. That year I began learning about tapestry with Nancy Harvey s videos and book. I ve now had many tapestry workshops. Times I ve spent with Archie Brennan 32
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY thoughtfully. This is due to the obvious fact that I am spending hours of my life weaving it but also because I want the end work to have a particular impact. I spend a lot of time thinking about symbolism and details that are important to include. T: Very definitely yes, image making is important to me! Contained in every tapestry I weave there is some meaning that s important to me by my choosing the images used. Sometimes it s enough for me to know my intent other times I hope to convey meaning to the viewer. What do you think tapestry s strengths are? What are its weaknesses? Tommye Scanlin, Black Gum, 14 in x 14 in, 8 epi, 2016, photo: Tim Barnwell. Wool, linen, cotton. and Susan Martin Maffei have made the most impact on my work but everyone who I ve studied with has been instrumental to my tapestry experiences. E: I think the novelty of tapestry is both its weakness and strength. Obviously it s been around forever, but in contemporary art and modern decorative arts there aren t many trained eyes and therefore intention and skill are often blurred. In my sort of old school mentality I believe (and was taught) one must learn and semi-master a technique before turning it on its head and making it one s own. These days, people are just learning the VERY basics and intuitively making things they have zero intention of creating. I am often torn by the beauty that is inherent in the weaving the materiality and yarn and the makers intention. T: For me, the primary strength of tapestry is its materiality combined with its powerful image potential. I thoroughly enjoy seeing how people use the medium to make the Do you work in other media as well? E: I am only working with tapestry and/or weaving at the moment, my studio practice involves weaving pretty much daily. I am collaborating with my partner on rugs so it is more plain weave and textured/pile weaving. T: Yes, I work in several ways to develop imagery for tapestry. Drawing, paintings, and photography all play a part in how I design. I sometimes exhibit these pieces along with tapestry. Do you combine other media with tapestry? If so, explain how multimedia work is important to your work. E: I used to collage into my weavings but realized that was only because my skill was lacking. I stopped adding in elements and started pushing myself to get better at details and imagery. T: Yes, I ve combined other media with tapestry when the idea called for it. Currently, I m not doing so. I m certainly not opposed to it if it works with the idea to be conveyed. Is imaging making important to you? Explain. Erin M. Riley, Undressing 3, 46 in x 48 in, 8 epi, 2014, photo: Erin M. Riley. Hand dyed wool, cotton warp. E: Yes, in a way. The image is composed carefully and 33
HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION images they present. I love seeing the weft-faced woven structure of tapestry. As far as weakness of tapestry, I d say that in the mind of the larger viewing audience in the U.S., the process is so far removed from most people s experience that it is hard for the public to appreciate both the time spent in the weaving and the skill involved in developing the design. I think this is one of the reasons that the process of tapestry creation is under-appreciated and under-valued in the U.S. What is the importance of skill and technical proficiency in tapestry weaving to you? E: Very important!! Although I will never claim to be a master at weaving, something inherent to the process is the fact that with every pass of the weft, every threading of the loom you learn something about yourself and your technique. I am changing is a personal mantra. But I am begrudgingly supporting weavers via social media whose work is going to fall apart simply by being moved, is unintentional in outcome (can t be repeated), or is exploiting the popularity of weaving by Jacquard weaving works or hiring out the labor. I have had some issues with my warp showing in works in the beginning of my practice but I recovered and learned better materials and techniques to fix that. I am also using visual cues of de-skilling intentionally in newer works (showing the warp) but I am thankful I had the strong base of intention and practice. T: I think that with any medium the development of technical proficiency can only aid the way one hopes to use it. I m of the strong opinion that doing tapestry rather than thinking about how to do tapestry is the way that proficiency develops. Yet I continue to feel very humble in the face of the challenges of making a good, simple weft-faced plain weave cloth of tapestry. I have been doing tapestry pretty much exclusively in my studio practice for over twenty-five years now and I m still challenged almost every day with some technical issue. What is the relative value of the process of making (the doing of it, the weaving) to the end product (the image, the object)? Tommye Scanlin, Hickory, 29 in x 19 in, 8 epi, 2015, photo: Tim Barnwell. Wool and linen. E: I think its 70% making and 30% the end product. When I finish a piece, I almost hate it, resenting it being done with me. I have to break my ties with the work (usually a night s sleep) before looking at it and enjoying it. Every piece has issues and flaws, but something I really like about tapestry is showing those flaws; it sucks but it s also very humbling. I m pretty obsessed with the weaving process. T: I guess, for me, the making and the end product are of equal value. I appreciate the significance of every movement of the weaver s hands in the creation of the image that s being made in tapestry. And I love seeing the image at last complete as the final passes are put in and the tapestry is cut from the loom. 34
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY Erin M. Riley, Highway Memorial 5, 18 in x 24 in, 8 epi, 2015, photo: Erin M. Riley. Hand dyed wool, cotton warp. Erin M. Riley is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. She received her MFA in fibers from Tyler School of Art, and her BFA in fibers from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Tommye Scanlin is Professor Emerita of Art, University of North Georgia, Dahlonega, Georgia, where she and her family (husband and cat) live. She has been weaving and exhibiting tapestry since 1988. Erin Riley posts frequently on Instagram. She exhibits widely and her tapestries have been featured in numerous print and online publications since 2010. Neil Janowitz, Looming Change; American Craft Magazine (June/July 2016.) https://craftcouncil.org/magazine/article/looming-change Erin Riley Public/Private Moments, a TEx@ATA online exhibition curated by Susan Iverson http://americantapestryalliance.org/exhibitions/tex_ata/erin-riley/ Tommye Scanlin teaches short classes and workshops in tapestry. In 2017 she will co-teach with noted multi-shaft and jacquard artist, Bhakti Ziek, during the eight-week Penland Spring Concentration. Information about the Penland class is at http://penland.org/textiles/index.html More about Tommye s work is found at her blog: http://tapestry13.blogspot.com Erin s website is http://erinmriley.com/ includes more links. *Quote noted by Erin can be found [here] http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.4750978.0007.305 35
HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION In Conversation: Phoebe McAfee and Natalie Novak Natalie s answers are noted as N: and Phoebe s as P: N: How did you get involved with tapestry weaving? P: After I graduated from college, I traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico, and discovered weaving. Later, I moved to Northern New Mexico and became Rachel Brown s apprentice (1967 to 1969). In addition to spinning and dyeing, Rachel taught me simple tapestry weaving techniques. In 1970 I moved to San Francisco, enrolled in the textiles program at San Francisco State University, and studied with Jean Pierre Larochette. N: Why did you to move to San Francisco? What was it like then? P: I went to San Francisco for a vacation. I fell in love with the town and when I visited the Yarn Depot, inkle loom in hand, Helen Pope offered me a job. Oh, yeah! I stayed in San Francisco for 40 years. In 2010 I moved to Portland. Now I m involved with the Damascus weavers in Portland, the HGA Weavers Guild, and ATA. N: What was it like working with Mark Adams? P: I learned a lot with Jean Pierre at the San Francisco Tapestry Workshop and that experience led me to Mark Adams. I enjoyed working on large pieces designed by a talented artist. I worked as one of Mark s weavers for Natalie Novak, The Familiar (Secret Rainbow.) 20 years. Rudi Richardson and I wove many tapestries for him. We were really collaborators because we were involved in decisions about colors and the interpretation of the design with woven techniques. That was a really good time in my life being paid to weave tapestry. N: Were you also weaving your own designs? Did you ever work in other media? P: I was also weaving my own designs and was an active part of the guild. I entered some shows and mostly got rejected, but I was always a part of the regional and national guild exhibits. My undergraduate degree was in sculpture and I weave on my inkle loom, but mostly I ve been a tapestry weaver. P: Natalie, how did you get involved in tapestry weaving? Phoebe McAfee, Autumn Flames, 2014. N: I attended the Oregon College of Art and Craft. They have a great fibers department, but I was intimidated by the looms. I felt like I would accidentally break them so I scurried through the loom room really quickly on my way to drawing and painting classes. Clearly I didn t know I was going to fall in love with weaving someday! I first started weaving because I discovered the Damascus Fiber Arts School. I thought it sounded like a cool place so I took Navajo style weaving from Audrey Moore. I loved everything about it. The first time I wove something that I thought of as tapestry was for ATA s unjuried small format show. Terry Olson encouraged me to make a tapestry for their group submission. It felt more spontaneous than the geometric designs I d been weaving on the Navajo loom and I really like creating an image in that way. I hadn t been painting for a while and making images reconnected me to all the reasons I love making art. 36
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY N: Weaving about weaving. N: I feel that weaving connects you physically to the piece. It s hands on; the body motions have an earth connectedness. It feels ritualistic; repeated motions in your work that build up to make something. Maybe making anything can be that way, but I feel that connection strongly with weaving tangled up, like the weaving spider, like it s really coming from your body. P: That relates to tapestry s strengths. One of the strengths for me is that it is so physical, so hands on and embodying. It also connects us through time with weavers from the past. N: I love feeling like I m part of that continuum. Natalie Novak, The Familiar (Love Nest.) P: That leads to the next question. Is imagery important to you? N: Sometimes I feel like a cave person making little marks. Maybe in the future someone will discover them and try to figure out what I meant and get it totally wrong! Or even right now if someone looked at what I was doing they d probably get it totally wrong. But that s not important to me. I think I m weaving the image for myself. Color is also important to me and I think color is important to you too. P: I think it s one of those human activities that s so old and yet it s current too. Hand weaving has a physicality and connection to the earth that machines can t replicate. N: Just knowing the time that someone spent, possibly hundreds of hours connected physically, thinking about the weaving, living it, breathing it. P: On the other hand, I think tapestry s weaknesses stem from the same qualities. It takes a really long time so it s not really economically viable. We do it for the art, not to make a living. P: Yes, that s true. Mark Adams was an amazing colorist. I learned a lot about blending colors and combining yarns into bundles to make new colors. That really excited me. How colors interact with each other and the high contrast you can achieve in tapestry are wonderful. N: When I was making my not Navajo designs, they were based on color. I would walk into the shop at the school and say I want to work with these colors. I don t know what I want to do with them yet, but these are the colors calling out to me. I think now I m doing some weird combination of Navajo and tapestry techniques, a whatever works approach, and color is still really important to me, but I m feeling more free to use imagery. I m also using blended weft bundles instead of just pure blocks of color. What about the imagery in your work? P: I started off using circles and curves in my imagery because in tapestry weaving you can make curves. I m still using circles. I ve also woven labyrinthine images, strands and weavings of weavings illusions of things going in and out of each other. A lot of Navajo designs do that trick your eye. Phoebe McAfee, Spring Flames, 2015. 37
HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION N: What is the importance of skill? P: Rachel Brown put a lot of importance on being skilled and knowing what your loom can do. I ve valued skill ever since. But I m at an age where I m slower and it s frustrating at times. I still have the skills, but my body can t do what it used to. I don t weave as many tapestries but I haven t stopped. N: Are you working smaller? P: Yes. I ve got ideas for big pieces but I take it one step at a time. P: What s the importance of skill for you? N: I think it s important to know the right way, although there are so many right ways, so, perhaps, a right way to do something. I like when people Natalie Novak, Temple of the Moon. have a total free-for-all, disregarding everything, but you can also really tell when someone knows the rules and is choosing to disregard them, as opposed to not knowing. I think there s validity in both approaches. I like loose open weavings, but I wonder how they will hold together over time. I feel you get so much more out of something if you know how to do it and take the time to put in the effort; it makes a really big difference in the finished piece. If you re going to put yourself in the box of tapestry weaving, it s important to use that skill set. P: I did some things that I shouldn t have in my early career because they didn t last. For example, choosing a warp that wasn t strong enough and which subsequently broke and had to be knotted. After a while you learn what materials will hold up and what materials are just going to give you grief. That s something that took me a long time to learn. N: I was asking you earlier this year about why you weave some tapestries side to side. It had never occurred to me that would make a difference with a larger, heavier piece. You told me why weaving sideways makes a difference to the structure, and I thought, Of course! You described a church with an enormous tapestry that s now much longer than it used to be. P: Cranbrook and RISD. P: The tapestry in Coventry Cathedral, England. Coventry was bombed in the war. As part of the restoration they commissioned a very long tapestry. It was too long to weave from the side so they wove it from bottom to top and the impact of gravity has made it sag, so that it is now three or four feet longer. N: Large pieces are usually woven in workshops, for example, the Australian Tapestry Workshop and Dovecot in Scotland. P: And the Gobelins in France is state run. When the government gives money to a tapestry manufactory they can afford to have huge looms and weave large pieces for public buildings. It takes a team of weavers to complete a large piece in a reasonable period of time. N: It seems like weaving is enjoying a moment of excitement, but there s not a lot of places to learn it. Damascus Fiber Arts School, Penland. P: In the seventies, when I was a young weaver, I met Hal Painter and Jim Brown and there was a weaving renaissance going on then too. N: They had their home in Southern Oregon, right? P: In Chiloquin, but before that they lived in San Francisco, which was in the midst of a weaving frenzy. I think we re building up to a weaving frenzy again. If we could just find a way to get more schools to teach tapestry. N: Since tapestry is so time consuming it s hard for people to find time for it. When I teach workshops students weave itty bitty pieces with wide spacing and thick yarns, something that you can get done, or at least started, in a few hours. When I tell someone that the piece I made took 200 hours it can be a little off putting. You really have to love something to put that much time into it. P: Maybe our job as tapestry weavers is to get people enthused about tapestry weaving. 38
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY N: It really is addicting. I think most people who come to Damascus stick around. They might drop out of sight for a little while, but they re usually weaving at home. P: I think that the value of Damascus is that we re weaving together. We see each other s weavings every week and we re watching each other progressing at the same slow pace and we re enjoying it. It s really good to weave together. P: What s the relative value of the process to the end product? I think that the process is the fun and important part. What you produce, it s a thing. But when you re producing it you re involved in it with your whole self. N: The process is really engaging. It s a conversation you re having with the work. It s the blue that I put in telling me that now I really need an orange, even though I had picked out pink. Or maybe it s the weaver next to you saying Girl, I m not so sure about that yellow. But it is very process oriented because it s such a time commitment. I love going to the school and spending as many hours as I can spare. Or as many hours as my back will let me! What do you think the difference is between the current weaving revival and the one in the 1970s? Phoebe McAfee, Fireplace, 2015 that people would start losing interest, that programs in schools would be cut, that people wouldn t want to buy tapestries. And now we are on an upswing again and people of your generation are part of that excitement. I m really happy about that. P: I can t really say. I was in the midst of this big interest in tapestry, especially in the Bay Area. I didn t ever consider N: Maybe it s part of an ongoing continuum. People in the world have been weaving for so long that they can t stop. Natalie Novak is a visual artist in Portland, OR. Working primarily in tapestry, Novak draws from ancient and contemporary weaving techniques to explore color relationships, modern mysticism and the (super) natural world. http://www.combedthunder.com Phoebe McAfee has been weaving since 1967, beginning as an apprentice with Rachel Brown in Arroyo Seco, New Mexico. She lives and weaves in Portland, Oregon. 39
HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION A More Beautiful Question, or How Ordering Cable TV Led to a Two Week Cartooning Course with Nancy Jackson by Dorothy Thursby How did ordering cable TV change my life? Well, it was not the cable but the man from Peru that I met in the process that brought new questions to my life. My lack of Spanish and his limited English created all kinds of telenovela situations from sit-coms to high drama, travel-adventure and finally the inevitable disconnect notice. Jose was as intrigued with my interest in Peruvian weaving as I was with his country s textiles. He guided and pushed me along my weaving journey with his many questions and eventually encouraged me to travel to Peru to learn more about textiles and his country. In the summer of 2014, I was able to study weaving with Maximo Laura in Lima, Peru. Yet, I had known all along something Warren Berger states in his book, A More Beautiful Question: that in order to find the right answer it is essential to first ask the right question. So, while Jose asked those first few questions, I was continuing to ask and pursue my own answers along the way, from backstrap weaving to tapestry weaving, and finally to a class in cartooning, made possible through the scholarship I received from ATA. so much by the process of weaving that they did not feel fully my own work. I hoped to change that by learning how to turn my images into cartoons, by creating those carefully considered lines and yarn choices for my own designs. Nancy and I began where we left off in a previous lesson. Nancy had taken a drawing I made and created the cartoon. I had created a preliminary value drawing, but was I still unsure about color choices. The image was meant to represent the relationship I had with Jose, my cable friend. Yet, the relationship had changed and it was clear that the image no longer made sense with its original meaning, so how was I to express that? Because part of this course was to include the imagery and influence of my Peruvian experience, I had brought along a few books as inspiration. As we looked at the various images, and as I thought about the role of this friend in my life, the idea of using non-traditional colors became exciting. What if we used the colors of natural Peruvian dyes, the colors of flying creatures and symbolic patterns rather than naturalistic colors? We began searching for this limited palette, and while the worktable filled with color choices it became clear, as many colors were added and subtracted over and over again, which ones felt right, which sang and which did not. Eventually we had the core colors and each found their place in the Jose Tapestry. Colors for the Jose Tapestry Dorothy Thursby, Beginnings. It was a hot day in June when I started in Nancy Jackson s studio in Benicia, California, and I had looked forward to the day for many months. I had woven before but had been studying with Nancy and other teachers for just a few years. I considered my weavings mainly samplers, beginner pieces. They were either copies of other s designs, or if they were my own images, they were guided Part of cartooning, I learned, is careful record keeping. Keeping to Jean Lurçat s principle of a limited palette and the coding of colors, a key was made and the cartoon carefully labeled. The colors were listed together by a letter and then by value, 1 representing the darkest value as in classical drawing. This letter/number code was transferred to the cartoon. This small chart allows for blends of three threads, but could easily be adopted for different weights of yarn and more threads to suit the design. Each step of the process allows for review and revision, so after altering the focus and meaning of the image, the original cartoon 40
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY more weave-able, but also more geometric to connect with Peruvian woven figures and to give him a more totem appearance. The hand gesture was changed to create a feeling of blessing rather than of silencing. As the changes were made, first in pencil, they were gradually darkened and they became more certain, harder to erase. Each change built on the last one, and opened new questions. Does this area reflect the meaning? Does changing that line or that shape alter the meaning? Does it add to or take away from what I wanted the image to be? Is it more interesting or less so? Can I let go? Do I need to hold on? It was emotional, exhausting and exhilarating. The whole image was questioned, drawn and redrawn several times in attempt to marry the meaning to the image. The final image of Blessing was traced over with markers in three different weights, ready to be reversed and transferred to the cartoon paper and made ready to weave. Color chart and color coded cartoon for Jose Tapestry needed to be changed before being sewn on and the weaving begun. Starting over with a new drawing was a wonderful way get back into weaving and to prepare for the next step of cartooning and image development. I repeated the color selection for Blessing using our original base colors from the Jose Tapestry, adding and subtracting balls of yarn to and from the table. We had already explored so many colors and their warm/cool/value relationships that it fell into place more quickly. A second key was created and the cartoon was carefully labelled. Once a selection for the new drawing was made from my sketches and the woven dimensions and direction of weave decided, a piece of paper was measured and cut to size. The drawing was enlarged the old fashioned way, by hand. While a trip to a copy store may have seemed easier, this process allowed for a careful reconsideration of the drawing and interpretation of the lines. A piece of clear plastic with a grid drawn in was placed over the new drawing, and a grid was added to the large piece of paper, cut to size. As I was drawing the image I thought about its meaning--why this image, why these people, why this gesture? The enlarged drawing was taped to the wall and the real design work began. The male figure took on a more spiritual significance and his features were enlarged to indicate a seer quality. The lines became more angular, Cartoon and Colors for the Blessing 41
HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION We continued to work on a third image called Home. It has a theme that is also based on travels and textile influences, but its subject is Israel. This image includes landscape, walls, silhouettes of figures and text, and therefore the focus is on other areas of tapestry design. We looked at positive and negative shapes in medieval tapestry, the simplifying and layering of shapes, and the role of value in creating limited space. [Doing] drawing exercises and comparing tapestries help to inform the lines and patterns of this third cartoon design. Color selection followed, again based on colors similar to natural dyes, but with a different value range and sense of light. It was such a full and rich two weeks of learning in Nancy s studio that it is hard to condense all I learned into a few paragraphs. There was a lot of technical information about recording, labeling, organizing yarn, work, and hours--all the practicalities of weaving. But there was so much more that is hard to express in words. How does a drawing become a weaving? How does an image hold meaning? How do warp and weft convey the feelings you want to express? I learned more than I expected and have cartoons ready to weave. There is still much more to learn and I am excited to begin. I am off to my loom and wide open to discovering my next question! Design Sketch for Home Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question. E.E. Cummings Dorothy Thursby lives and weaves in Mt. View, Colorado. 42
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY A Report on Elemental Tapestry: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water by Deborah Corsini Much anticipation filled the day of Thursday, June 16, 2016, as members of Tapestry Weavers West (TWW) eagerly awaited the first glimpse of Elemental Tapestry: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water at the Mills Building in San Francisco. After well over a year of exhibition planning, organizing and creating new tapestries it was time to celebrate our achievements. Thirty-nine tapestries by twenty-three weavers graced the lobby walls of this elegant and historic building in downtown San Francisco and filled the space with warm colors, textures, and rich imagery. Bearing food and drink, members from near and far, friends, family, and tapestry students filled the long hallway lobby and viewed the stunning tapestries on display. It was especially appreciated that Jean Pierre Larochette and Yael Lurie were among the more than one hundred guests in attendance. It was a celebratory and wonderful night and the air was filled with lively conversations and congratulations to all. The exhibit was conceived a couple years earlier after TWW s successful first themed show Water, Water (2014) was held at the East Bay Municipal Water District s lobby gallery in Oakland, California. Our members woven response to the water theme was heartfelt and varied, so the idea was expanded upon to include the other three primal elements. I secured the venue and worked with Kerri Hurtado of Artsource Consulting in jurying, curating, liaising with TWW, and designing the installation of the final exhibit. Pat Nelson, Sky Fire: Pixilated Star HR4796, 36 in x 30 in, 2010, photo: Jim Cass of Barifot Photography. The theme, Elemental Tapestry: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, inspired a wide range of interpretations. Depicted in abstraction and realism, the classic elements represent both a microcosmic and macrocosmic view of the world. Contrast Tricia Goldberg s backyard landscape in Suzy s Pond, an intimate scene of a lush garden, to the pixelated image of a night sky, a grand view of the expanding universe in Sky Fire: Pixilated Star HR4796 by Patricia Nelson. These works embody both the natural and spiritual realms and the profound interconnections of this quartet of elements to our own existence. Goldberg s tapestry rendered in a complex, dizzying patterning and blended colors, is opposite in approach to the graphic weft interlocked squares of Nelson s distant star. Yet both these pieces convey the small and grand view of the universe with their unique tapestry marks. Tricia Goldberg, Suzy s Pond, 30 in x 40 in, 2015, photo: Dan Dosick. Collection of Suzy Goldberg. A lovely and lyrical piece is Jan Moore s triptych, River, Take Me Along. The panorama is a bird s eye perspective of a rolling landscape with intertwining rivers, fields and distant mountains. It is an homage to the song by Bill Staines, and to the beauty of an unfolding landscape. Interpreted in tapestry hachure and a clean primary palette this work exemplifies the implied storytelling nature of the medium. Moore s creation is a visually captivating scene, a tapestry melody of color and graceful movement. Many artists in our group use eccentric weaving in their tapestries. Katie Alcorn s free-spirited Peaks and Valleys is a lively abstracted vista of a hazy, expansive mountain range. Her view of earth and sky mingles and dances as you look to the far horizon. Murky Water by Maj-Britt Mobrand is an expressive interpretation of a muddy river. 43
HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION Designed with black and white checks, slit tapestry and peculiar, odd figures, her work examines the healing nature of water (especially during ritual celebrations) and Doyle s own personal reflections of transformation from a rough time. These pieces express anxiety and aloneness yet also in weaving them, redemption. Long after the exhibit is over a catalog remains the first documentation of a TWW exhibition. This catalog is a little gem, beautifully designed by Nicki Bair and carefully edited by Marcia Ellis, Bobbi Chamberlain, and me. From my perspective, I feel this exhibit was a great success. It is amazing to get our collective work out and on to the walls in an interesting public space. I believe the theme inspired a lot of creative interpretations that made for a more cohesive experience in viewing the exhibition. As TWW schedules future exhibitions I think that a themed exhibition is something that we might consider again. An exciting addendum is the sale of two tapestries from this exhibit: Jan Moore s River, Take Me Along and corriente azul by Lyn Hart. Jan Moore, River, Take Me Along, 66 in x 54 in, 2014, photo: Cindy Pavlinac. This eccentrically woven piece is composed of elongated and undulating rectangular shapes. The eccentric weave adds interesting surface ripples on the woven cloth. A more formal slit wedge weave is Aranya by Janette Gross. This Hindi word means green and bountiful forest and this piece captures the sense of place in blues and greens. The contrasting slit diamonds add another dimension, both technically and as a compelling visual detail. Weaving on the diagonal, Palouse Sunset by Bobbi Chamberlain, mimics the gently rolling hills of a southeastern Washington state landscape. The warm greens and yellows and darker shadows are a stunning watercolor-like interpretation of the ever changing beauty of earth. A smaller portion of the exhibition will be on display at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles from January 20 March 5, 2017, during the American Tapestry Biennial 11. A few catalogs will be available for sale. Finally, a provocative and quirky take on the theme are Dance Doyle s two tapestries, Jumping Off and Oh, Dip! Bobbi Chamberlain, Palouse Sunset, 26 in x 41 in, 2010, photo: Bobbi Chamberlain Maj-Britt Mobrand, Murkey Water, 23 in x 45 in, 2014, photo: Dand Davis www.tapestryweaverswest.org Deborah Corsini has enjoyed a long career as a designer, practicing artist, and weaver. Her work is exhibited nationally and is in private and corporate collections. Recently retired as curator of the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, she remains an advocate for contemporary textiles. 44
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY Tapestry on Tap, ATA s 2016 Members Retreat Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 7-10 2016 participants and instructors enjoy the sunshine. Flexible Lines: Aino Kajaniemi, Instructor by Janette Meetze Attending the ATA biennial tapestry retreat and workshop is high on my list of priorities and this year reinforced my view that it is an important catalyst for my studio practice. Not only does it offer the opportunity to take a workshop with a professional and highly skilled tapestry artist, but it also provides an important way to connect with a community of dedicated tapestry weavers to share ideas, current work, additional education, or exhibit opportunities. It is an experience filled with a delightful mix of intellectual stimulation, skill building, and just plain fun. Bonds created and strengthened during this event are an important component of a process that normally involves a great deal of time alone with our looms. One of the things I appreciate about the way this event is organized are the opportunities to observe and connect with the workshop that you are not actually attending. Both of the instructors give two different lectures, one as part of Convergence and the general ATA meeting and another at the retreat itself at the beginning of the week. I enjoyed learning about Susan Iverson, her work and the workshop she was giving, and I had various opportunities to connect with her and her students during the week. She invited those of us in Aino Kajaniemi s class to attend a warp pulling demonstration so that we could see the culmination of their work evolving from a flat surface into a sculptural one. My choice to take Aino Kajaniemi s workshop was based on the line emphasis in her work and her practice of sketching as a preliminary way to design her tapestries. I was intrigued by the way she captures the feeling of her sketches in her tapestry and yet at the same time is able to strengthen and enrich her visual expression through the tapestry medium. These are concepts I am fundamentally interested in achieving in my own work. I feel certain that it will take many months to sift through all of the important ideas that I came away with as a result of the week spent with her. Aino Kajaniemi, Autentia1, 15 in x 8 in, 2013, photo: Janette Meetze. Linen warp, various weft 45
HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION Aino is a professional weaver and I appreciated her honesty and willingness to share important and personal aspects of her working process. She stated clearly that many of the weaving techniques her work is known by came as a result of working through the learning process without strict guidance as to how things must be done. Others were developed by a need to work as quickly and efficiently as possible to achieve her final result. She demonstrated her exact process by starting a small tapestry from a sketch, completing the weaving and the finishing techniques she uses during the week of our workshop. The finished tapestry was purchased by a student in the class. This opportunity to observe the entire process was, in my view, one of the most valuable aspects of this workshop. She also brought numerous examples of her finished tapestries that we could observe closely as new techniques were introduced. In addition, she connected with each person in the class concerning our personal projects on a daily basis. Her choice of warp was a 30/3 linen, which I found challenging to work with, and her choice of weft was extremely varied both in fiber type and thickness. While I may not be using her exact choice of warp in the future, I came away with an expanded attitude concerning manipulating the proportion of warp to weft as integral to achieving the visual expression I seek. One of my favorite quotes from her lecture at the general ATA meeting was, What materials are suitable for weft? Anything over a couple of centimeters long. These are ideas that I enjoyed working with in my class sample and excite me to explore further in the future. In general, I will be considering ideas for some time to come based on my experience in this year s workshop. The tapestry weavers that I have admired and been inspired by the most have not bent their personal vision around traditional tapestry techniques, they have bent traditional tapestry techniques around their desired visual expression. As Aino also stated in her lecture, This is lonely work for many hours every day, and clearly, no substitute exists for this experience of doing and individual experimentation. I will be examining my whole process with more awareness after taking this workshop and testing my given modes of working to see whether or not they serve the purpose that is intended. Aino Kajaniemi s Workshop, August 2016, at the ATA retreat in Milwaukee, WI. Janette Meetze maintains the Fiber Studio in Bixby, Oklahoma, where she works, teaches and offers supplies for tapestry weaving. She also writes a blog about her daily weaving life and her sketching practice. jmeetzestudiocommonthreads.blogspot.com 46
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY Pulling Warp/Pushing Ideas: Susan Iverson, Instructor by Sue Weil File this in the One-of-the-Best-Things- I ve-done-for-myself-lately category. In early August, following close on the heels of the Handweavers Guild of America Convergence 2016, the American Tapestry Alliance held Tapestry on Tap, ATA s 2016 Members Retreat. Two workshops, two outstanding teachers; I was fortunate enough to be one of the students attending Susan Iverson s Pulling Warp/Pushing Ideas 4-day session. My interest in registering for Susan s workshop was largely based on digital images I had seen of her work. I knew nothing of the technique, but found her pieces intriguing and thoroughly compelling. Somehow, she had managed to take a largely 2-dimensional art form and added an element of controlled yet dynamic manipulation to lift her work into a 3-dimensional world. During one of our daily class discussions, Susan suggested that for a work of art to be ultimately successful and lasting, it should ask far more questions than it answers; a criterion clearly achieved in her work on a technical, compositional and emotional level. In 2015, Susan retired from her position as professor in the Department of Craft/Material Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia. Drawing from her experience as a university professor, her classes were well balanced between academic/historical discussions, technical demonstrations, opportunities for participants to share their own work, and time to weave and explore, all the while creating an atmosphere of dynamism, levity and community. At some point each day, she shared PowerPoint presentations she d prepared, including images from artists whose work had inspired her use of pulled warp, slides of her own pieces, some student work, and images of textiles from ancient and modern cultures that had influenced her. Among others, we were introduced to the work of Herman Scholten, Lyla Nelson, Adela Akers, John McQueen, as well as some travel slides she d taken years earlier in Peru and examples of ancient Peruvian textiles. After a tease of visual inspiration and discussion, Susan demonstrated different pulled warp techniques. We learned how to draft patterns for curves and corners, ripples and waves, tunnels and pleats. As Terry Olson noted, Best of all were the samples so we could see how it was made before and after the pulling. The end object is not necessarily what one 47
HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION would expect seeing the pre-pulled weaving. We learned to carefully graph out each sample, then cut and tape it to make certain our intended project would reap the anticipated outcome. On the final day of the workshop, those of us who were interested met with Susan individually for a thoughtful, enormously helpful critique of our work. Our group was social helping each other when one would get stuck, demonstrating pulling the warp when another of us had finished a sample, and chatting among ourselves our workshop was a tad noisy as we joked, shared our successes and failures with this new technique, and got to know one another. The Retreat was held on the campus of Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We were housed in student dorms, shared meals in one of the university dining halls, and held class in another dining hall. With about a dozen students in each workshop, plus our two instructors and a few ATA Board Members also in attendance, we were a lively, geographically diverse group. Many evenings were spent on the 17th floor of our dormitory in a student lounge overlooking the city of Milwaukee wine, music, stories, laughs, sharing information and inspiration creating new friendships and building new memories together. Since joining the American Tapestry Alliance late in 2014, I ve looked forward to receiving each monthly newsletter. From these, I ve come to know so many outstanding artists. When I began weaving professionally in the 80 s, we weren t connected through the Internet and finding community was largely done through the American Craft Council shows scattered across the country and the calendar. ATA opened my eyes to a vital world of tapestry artists. I recall commenting years ago to a friend with a doctorate in art history how wonderful it must be to attend professional conferences with her colleagues. Not so! she replied, adding that there were relatively few jobs in her field and competition for them made for a close-to-thechest, unfriendly environment. In contrast to my friend s experience, the ATA retreat provided a wonderful environment for an exchange of ideas, techniques and inspiration, and an equally outstanding opportunity to meet a generous group of artists from around the U.S. and beyond. Sue Weil is a tapestry artist living in Northern California. Originally creating one-of-a-kind fabric to use in her line of women s fashion, Sue turned her focus to tapestry in 2011. Feeling that often less is more, her designs are intentionally spare, exploring rhythm and asymmetry in bold compositions. Sue earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Anthropology from Harvard University. Combining her interests in anthropology and art, Sue is especially drawn to weaving s cultural universality. 48
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HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION ATA News Painter/Brown Scholarship for Tapestry Study ATA s scholarship fund is for any American Tapestry Alliance member who wishes to pursue study in the field of tapestry weaving. The application may be for study in workshops, courses, study with individual tutors or institutions of higher learning. Read more and apply. http://americantapestryalliance.org/awards/rata-scholarship-for-tapestry-study/ Deadline: February 1, 2017 AmazonSmile AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support ATA, at no cost to you. When you shop at smile.amazon.com, you ll find the exact same prices, selection and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to ATA. To shop at AmazonSmile simply go to smile.amazon.com from the web browser on your computer or mobile device. You will be asked to choose the charity you wish to support and you can chose the American Tapestry Alliance. You may also want to add a bookmark to smile.amazon.com to make it even easier to start your shopping at AmazonSmile. SOFA (Sculpture, Objects, Functional Art and Design) A big thank you to Barbara Burns, Christine Laffer and Michael Rohde for staffing ATA s booth at SOFA 2016. Their participation allowed ATA to give contemporary tapestry a voice at this long standing and respected arts fair. San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles. Here s what s happening: Join ATA to celebrate the opening of American Tapestry Biennial 11 at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles. Tapestry Weaving: techniques for your toolkit Taught by Tricia Goldberg This class is designed both for the beginning weaver who has little or no experience with tapestry and for the more experienced tapestry weaver who wants to learn new techniques. Beginning weavers will learn how to: warp a loom, weave lines, curves and shapes, blend yarn colors. More advanced weavers can focus on a variety of techniques including: weaving complex shapes, eccentric weaving, half pass techniques. Click here for more information and registration. Contemplating the Sublime: 21st Century Tapestry January 29, 2017, 11:30 am 2:15 pm San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles Lecture and Panel Discussion *Guest speaker *Moderated panel discussion with exhibiting ATB 11 artists This event is free, with admission to the museum. Registration is required click here to register. http://americantapestryalliance.org/education/contemplating-the-sublime-21st-century-tapestry/ 50
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF TAPESTRY ART TODAY American Tapestry Biennial 11 opening reception January 29, 2017, 3:00 5:00 pm San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles This event is free. Registration is required. Phone (408) 971-0323 More information: Mary Lane, director@americantapestryalliance.org Important Dates December 24, 2016 January 21, 2017 American Tapestry Biennial 11 closes at Mulvane Art Museum. American Tapestry Biennial 11 opens at San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. January 26 28, 2017 Tapestry Weaving: techniques for your toolkit taught by Tricia Goldberg. Information January 29, 2017 February 1, 2017 April 15, 2017 April 16, 2017 August 15, 2017 September 30, 2017 American Tapestry Biennial 11 opening at San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. Contemplating the Sublime: 21st Century Tapestry Painter/Brown Scholarship Fund deadline. Information. ATA International Student Award deadline. Information. American Tapestry Biennial 11 closes at San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. Small Tapestry International 5 opens at the University of North Texas. Small Tapestry International 5 closes at the University of North Texas. Tapestry Topics Themes & Deadlines Studio Tips Deadline: January 15, 2016 Share your tips for setting up a studio shelving, lighting, flooring, chairs, yarn storage, necessary work spaces, setting up a studio space in a room with multiple functions. Share photos of your studio. All approaches are welcome from the tiny to the spacious. How do you create a space that makes you want to sit down and weave? Please email Theme Coordinator, Kathe Todd-Hooker, spider472@comcast.net, to let her know what you would like to contribute to this issue. Call for Theme Coordinators Do you have an idea for a theme? Would you like to be a Theme Coordinator? Email: newsletter@americantapestryalliance.org Tapestry Topics Committee Editor Copy Editor Layout Proofreader Web preparation Mailing Leslie Munro Robbie LaFleur Colin Roe Ledbetter Katzy Luhring Mary Lane Ruth Manning 51
HONORING TRADITION, INSPIRING INNOVATION The Back Page ATA Founders Hal Painter and Jim Brown, Chiloquin, Oregon, 1968. 52