The shape of tapestry and the ATB9

I did enjoy my time with the tapestries in Fort Wayne at the

Fort Wayne Museum of Art

The whole saga of walking into the gallery on Thursday afternoon and realizing immediately that the show was missing pieces was disappointing and telling people their work was not hung was rather miserable. But I still enjoyed spending a lot of time looking at the tapestries that were hung. And the good news is that the rest of the tapestries should be hung already. Please see two of my prior posts for details.

A Call to Action for Tapestry Artists

American Tapestry Biennial 9

Here are a few things I enjoyed about the show with some detailed photos. And of course I wish I could have seen the 16 pieces that were not hung. If anyone goes to see the show after they are up, post some photos!

Sunia,

by

Ruth Jones,

was a piece I studied a lot. There is much that reminds me of classical tapestry here with the hachure, colors, subject matter and floral motifs. I stood close to it to study the technique and found it confusing up close, stepped back a few feet and of course it was wonderful. Perception changes with distance. This piece is lovely. It got the first place award from the juror, Lee Talbot.

Sunia,

Ruth Jones; 32 x 51 inches, wool, silk, cotton

Sunia,

detail

I love this piece,

Return

by

Gunilla Petersson

. I kept going back to it over and over again (okay, I went back to almost all of them several times). The textures and subtlety of the work is fascinating. She uses a lot of outlining and eccentric weft bits and there is a lot going on in the "background" that you can't see well in a photograph. This, along with Ulrikka Mokdad's piece are examples of tapestries with few colors used to great effect.

Return

--Gunilla Petersson; 47 x 39 inches, wool, linen

Return,

detail

Another piece I spent a lot of time looking at was

In My, Maybe Your Neighborhood

by

Ulrikka Mokdad

. I loved how there were a minimal number of colors and that she used various tapestry techniques to create shading and movement in the piece. I also liked the challenge of the subject matter. (My apologies for the photograph here. The piece is absolutely rectangular, but I didn't take enough care in where I was standing to represent this.)

In My, Maybe Your Neighbourhood,

Ulrikka Mokdad; 62 x 42 inches, wool, linen

I just loved the sweeping lines in the face and hair.

In My, Maybe Your Neighbourhood,

detail

This piece,

Verdant

by

Susan Iverson

was not one of my favorites in the catalog. When seeing it in person, I was blown away. It is gorgeous. I love the swooping shape with the glass form in each curve. I love the repetition of forms and colors throughout the piece, and I love how it challenges me to think about tapestry in a different form.

Verdant

--Susan Iverson; 51 x 88 x 6 inches, wool, linen, glass.

Verdant

, detail

Mary Zicafoose

's weft ikat work is amazing. I love the image in this large piece. I have never done ikat and just making these complicated forms line up across three panels seems really difficult to me. The effect is beautiful. Look at the top picture on her website

HERE

to see a photo of the ikat wrapping technique.

Blueprint #7,

Mary Zicafoose; 84 x 88 inches, linen warp, hand-dyed and woven wool weft-faced ikat tapestry

I took this photo as I marveled at how well the ikat works between the panels.

Blueprint #7,

detail

One thing I have started looking at when going to tapestry shows is what epi different weavers use. There is a wide variety at this show, though all pieces seemed to be between 4 and 20 epi. Mary Zicafoose's work was on the lower end of the ends-per-inch (epi) range and Ulrikka Mokdad and Ruth Jones on the higher end.

***Disclaimer note:

I have had issues in the past with tapestry artists objecting to me posting photos of their work on my blog. I want to say here that I do my best to represent each piece as well as possible. These photos are snapshots with a hand-held camera taken by necessity with no flash in a low-light gallery on blue walls. Photography is allowed of ATB shows and is stated so in the entry contract you signed. My purpose in posting these photos is educational. Not everyone can visit these shows, and I know that I learn a great deal from looking at details of other artists work. Please understand that is the spirit in which I post these photos. If you are an artist represented here and you object to my posting photos of your work, please contact me and I will remove the photos. All photos are here at extremely low resolutions. They are not print-able and cannot be blown up more than this in print without being extremely pixelated.

ATB9 goes New Mexico

I have a few more thoughts about the work I saw at ATB9 last week at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art. I thought I'd start with the two artists from my home state of New Mexico: Mary Cost of Santa Fe and Donna Loraine Contractor of Albuquerque.

Left to right: Fractured Square Series: Reds, Blacks & Golds, Square by Donna Loraine Contractor; When Fortune Flowers by Lindsey Marshall; Etude 3 by Joyce Hayes; Semblance of the Ancient Ones by Tori S. Kleinert; Skyscape by Mary Cost

Mary Cost and I worked with James Koehler in Santa Fe. I have enjoyed watching Mary's work blossom over the last few years and I really love her architectural pieces like this one.

Skyscape; 53.5 x 38.5 inches, hand-dyed wool, cotton

I love Mary's hand-dyed yarn. The subtle variation of color in the yarn makes the surface look alive and is perfect for her depiction of traditional adobe stucco walls. I also like the way she highlights the top of certain forms with a brighter color.

Skyscape detail

Donna Loraine uses a finishing technique that is possibly derived from the traditional Hispanic weaving from New Mexico. She braids the warp and leaves this fringe visible. I love the subtle stripes that she uses throughout the piece. I believe she uses tapestry yarn that is hand-dyed by Weaving Southwest.

Fractured Square Series: Reds, Blacks & Golds, Square; Donna Loraine Contractor, 37.5 x 39 inches, wool, cotton

Reds, Blacks & Golds, Square detail

Donna Loraine uses dovetails for her joins. Mary Cost uses the James Koehler interlock join that I detailed in this blog post earlier in December 2012. I found the joins in both of these pieces to be important to the overall look of the piece.

American Tapestry Biennial 9

I was able to attend the second opening of the American Tapestry Alliance's biennial show, ATB9 in at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art in Fort Wayne, IN this evening. Unfortunately for the American Tapestry Alliance (ATA) and tapestry lovers everywhere, the museum did not hang the entire show. The American Tapestry Biennial is an international juried show and the show hung here as of today is not the entire thing. Please see my last blog post for more specifics about this. It is now clear that the space miscalculation issue lays with the museum and the ATA board has been working hard to remedy the situation. It appears that the rest of the tapestries will be hung in the coming week. Thanks to the board for their hard work today to find a solution to this problem.

Enjoy the show!  At least virtually...

In My, Maybe Your Neighbourhood--Ulrikka Mokdad

Here is a video that gives you a feeling for the gallery. The direct YouTube link is HERE if you want to see it in a little bit bigger window without it being grainy in full screen.

If you have a slower internet connection, you can find a lower resolution version of the same video by clicking HERE. The link takes you to my YouTube channel (I hope!).

Crane--Lialia Kuchma; In My, Maybe Your Neighbourhood--Ulrikka Mokdad

Macondo--Alex Friedman; Verdant--Susan Iverson; Daheim (At Home)--Thomas Cronenberg; Blueprint #7--Mary Zicafoose

DisConnect--Linda Wallace; Mates--Cecilia Blomberg; Dialogues Through the Veil--Elizabeth J. Buckley; Macondo--Alex Friedman

After Albers--Carol Chave; DisConnect--Linda Wallace

Tara--Michael F. Rohde; The Witchcraft Series: Alchemists--Anne Jackson; After Albers--Carol Chave

Home Safe Home--Becky Stevens; Return--Gunilla Petersson; Postcard for Angela--Tricia Goldberg; Declaration of Independence--Marzena Ziejka; Tara--Michael F. Rohde; The Witchcraft Series: Alchemists--Anne Jackson

On center wall: Fractured Square Series: Reds, Blacks & Golds, Square--Donna Loraine Contractor; When Fortune Flowers--Lindsey Marshall; Etude 3--Joyce Hayes; Semblance of the Ancient Ones--Tori S. Kleinert; Skyscape--Mary Cost

Seated Woman--Helen Gold; Sunia--Ruth Jones; Little Spinner Girl--Barbara Burns

Here are some photos from the opening this evening. I have to admit that I am not good at openings or other social events. I came here by myself and though I kept hoping to see someone I knew walk around the corner, it didn't happen. The opening was actually a winter party for all the current shows at the museum. I only made it until about 8pm before I bailed. The bright notes were that the music was okay, I got to talk to the executive director of the museum again about tapestry, and I met Marzena Ziejka who wove the gorgeous Declaration of Independence tapestry. I saw no other people I could finger as tapestry artists. You know how I knew Marzena was a weaver? She was trying to see the back of Michael Rohde's Tara piece. I have spent two days trying to make my head flat so I could see the back of the tapestries. It is kind of torture. She did flip up a corner of hers so I could see it.

A call to action for tapestry artists.

Foreground piece is Tara by Michael Rohde

***Update added 1/18/13 at 5pm ET. This note is from the ATA's Chair of Exhibitions: 

As you may have learned, through a misunderstanding with the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, they had initially only installed part of the ATB9 exhibition. Michael Rohde has spoken with the Museum Executive Director, who has promised to begin next week the installation of the rest of the tapestries. ATA regrets the situation, but feels that the Museum is doing its best to rectify the omission.

Please, if you have any questions or concerns, do not contact the Musuem, but send your questions to board@americantapestryalliance.org

I am in Fort Wayne, Indiana today to see the American Tapestry Biennial 9 at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art. I was excited about this trip. It is no small thing to get here from rural Colorado.

I flew into Detroit, drove the 3 hours to Fort Wayne, located the beautiful downtown museum, and was greeted warmly by the museum staff. I walked into the gallery indicated by the docent and immediately knew there was something wrong. There weren't enough tapestries. I counted 25 and then reviewed the images in my mind of the tapestries I expected to see from the catalog. There was no Barbara Heller or Nancy Jackson or Archie Brenan or Dorothy Clews to be found. I checked around all the corners. I went to the gift shop and looked at the catalog again just to make sure I wasn't making up tapestries that were supposed to be there. Nope, they weren't hanging.

I was able to talk to the curator of the show and executive director of the museum, Charles Shepard, about what happened to the other tapestries, the purpose and structure of the American Tapestry Alliance, and some about what tapestry is all about. There was certainly an error somewhere with communication about the running feet needed for this show. Whose fault it was is not important at this point. What is important is that almost half of the glorious tapestries are rolled up in a room somewhere and I couldn't see them.

In my mind, what matters most is what came next in our conversation. The museum is interested in showing work in many different mediums and it seems that all they really understood about tapestry was that it is a fiber medium. They didn't really understand what tapestry was and through research of past biennials on the ATA website, didn't fully comprehend how large tapestries can be. When they got the work and realized it was a show of "fiber paintings" some of which were huge, they realized they didn't have a big enough space reserved. So after a lot of shuffling, they chose the pieces that are currently hanging.

I was grateful to get to speak with Mr. Shepard and extremely happy that he accepted this show for his gallery. I appreciate his successful efforts at choosing a cohesive group of tapestries from the juried tapestries sent to him and for hanging them so beautifully. I hope that the Fort Wayne Museum of Art hosts another ATA biennial one day soon. Their facility is fantastic and they are open to showing fiber work. They certainly have enough space for an entire biennial, they just didn't have enough of it reserved for this show.

What I am disturbed by is that the museum didn't completely understand what tapestry was. Did you get that? An art museum didn't understand what our medium is. This is very bad news for tapestry artists. We have a long way to go if we want to be considered fine art. And how are we going to have our art seen if it isn't considered fine art? If I spend my life energy creating images that attempt to communicate something to the world outside my head, then I want my images seen. I hope that other tapestry artists also feel this way.

I am discouraged by how few fiber artists seem to want to engage in dialog on this matter. Yes, it is easier to hide in our studios and weave, but tapestry will remain an antiquated medium remembered as something for decorating medieval castles and not a contemporary fine art form if we don't talk about it.

Let's start now. Leave your thoughts in the comments. Go to the ATA forums and participate. Use the power of social media and the internet. Talk to people in your various art communities. Pay attention to international tapestry work. Submit your work to shows and tell people what tapestry is. Go to public places and demonstrate tapestry weaving. Show your work wherever you can. Do it.

Here is the list of the tapestries that are not hanging in Fort Wayne. You can see the others at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art until February 21st.

Deann Rubin, Draw/#2 Pencil
Mary Kester, Broken Lintel
Myla Collier, Urban Forest
Janet Austin, On the Edge of Chaos
Erica Lynn Diazoni, Psyche
Bozena Pychova, Blue Prelludium
Nancy Jackson, Lakota Creation Myth II
Kathy Spoering, August
Joanne Sanburg, Bebe
Suzanne Pretty, Road Construction in Detail
Archie Brennan, Partial Portrait-AB-Once Upon a Summer
Barbara Heller, Sarah Rebecca
Dorothy Clews, Antipodean Landscape
Pat Williams, Red Winged Black Birds: Memorial to Their Falling From the Sky
Anne Brodersen, Departure
Marie-Thumette Brichard, Glaucophanes et Prasinites 2

Though the show is truncated, I still highly recommend seeing it if you can. Most of the pieces hanging are stunning. I mourn the ones that are in the back room. I really very much wanted to spend some time with them too.

(Yes, I did request permission to photograph the show. ATA allows photographing of tapestries in the biennials, but this particular museum does not allow photography. I was given permission to photograph just in this gallery today.)

How Would it Be?

I am sitting in a hotel room in Denver awaiting a flight tomorrow morning. Here is a snapshot of the art that is on the wall. (My apologies for the poor photo and that I don't know whose work this is.)

I was, as I am wont to do, lounging on the bed surrounded by knitting, books, my journal, and my computer (having abandoned the television as hopelessly unimaginative) and I looked over my right shoulder and saw this picture. It made me gasp actually, and that is something I have never said about hotel room art before. It made me think of a song I was listening to today as I drove north through the Arkansas valley watching the Collegiate peaks appear before me. Ellis is one of my favorite folk singers. I love her song How Would it Be which is on her Break the Spell album.

How would it be if everything that you thought you knew
Was turned upside down, opposite from your point of view
How would you feel if the ground was really the sky
And all this time you've been walking when you could've been flying

[...]
What if all the birds were flying just to show us
And all the trees were really holding the sky up
And everything that you do matters some how
What if heaven and hell was right now?

How would it be if you really created your life?
[...]
What if loving what you have is everything?

[...]
How would you change your life?

(You can listen to the whole song song at her digital store on her website HERE. It is the first song on Break the Spell... or just buy the album. Or if you like the visual, here is a YouTube video of her singing it at the 2007 Rocky Mountain Folks Festival in Lyons, CO. Incidently, I was there listening.)

The Sangres and Collegiates were gorgeous today with the sun peaking through the clouds and shining off the snow. The wind was fierce driving through South Park (yes, the place the cartoon was written about) and there were ribbons of snow racing across the road. They were beautiful (and admittedly they turned me into a white-knuckle, multiple cars behind me, pretending to be 85 years old, driver... but just for a little bit. I got my mojo back as soon as I could see again). When I started climbing Kenosha pass I glanced back at the valley below me and it was all brilliantly white and yet soft and fuzzy from the snow blurring the boundaries.

Sometimes blurry boundaries and turning things upside down is a very good thing. It sure feels like heck when you're hanging upside down by your toenails though!

(Yes, it did occur to me that the people who hung the photo put it up upside down. This is a new hotel. But I like it this way. New perspectives are important.)

Mighty cold

Last night Alamosa, CO had the distinction of being the coldest place in the nation. This isn't a huge surprise. It happens every year. Still, the fact of the cold is shocking. When we beat out Fairbanks, Alaska and Bismarck, North Dakota, I know it is cold. Minus 33 degrees to be exact. I am still completely amazed my car started at 7:30 this morning. It took a few tries. She was really cranky when I let the clutch out but on the third try she kept running. After 20 minutes of letting her warm up, there was ice on the inside of the windows and no melting at all of the 1/4 inch of ice on the outside of the windshield. Though I parked in the sunshine at work, when I went out to eat my lunch at noon, it was frozen in my lunch bag.

The cold makes me hold myself tight to my bones.
It doesn't let me fly free. It makes me clench against the pressure of it.
This is hunching in your coat cold.
Dog won't walk on the snow because it hurts her feet cold.
I don't care if my hair gets messed up, I'm wearing a hat cold.

Our house is an old farmhouse outside of Alamosa a few miles. It still has single pane windows (which you might remember I complained about being painted shut in the summer...) and no insulation in the floor. My laundry room which is also the storage room, coat room, mud room, and entryway to the house as the real front door is broken, was below freezing yesterday evening. The door hinges scream when you open the door because they are iced together. Needless to say the washer is frozen.


The cold is insidious, insistent, and a little frightening.
The neighbor's sheep, in all their pounds of wooly glory, are huddled together en masse against it.
And that is saying something.

2012 in the rearview...

2012 was not a bad year. It had some phenomenal highlights as well as some really deep struggles (okay, I haven't written about the really deep struggles, just the funnier ones). Here are some of both. The links are to earlier blog posts about these events.

I got married. This was the BIG one. Even when committed to a small ceremony, getting married consumes a great deal of a year. Couple that with the need to drive 9000 miles to have the ceremony in a state where our union is celebrated (and legal), and you have a wonderful summer of wedding. Okay, we didn't have to drive and we didn't have to go all the way to Prince Edward Island or the northern tip of Nova Scotia, but damn it was fun to do it. Iowa would have been closer, but how romantic is getting married in Iowa?
 The Wedding blog post.

My niece was born. This was another biggie. I've never had a niece before. In 2012 I got one niece from my sister and married into another one (see THIS post about Megan)! This kid is already following in her auntie's footsteps--she is lying in a tent holding onto a Macintosh computer.
The day I became an auntie post.
My little knitter post.

I did not weave... well not very much. I did finish a couple pieces including a great commission for a couple in Pheonix.
Emergence VI post.
Cherry Lake post.

Emergence VI

I did teach many workshops and greatly enjoyed my students.
Symbols of the Southwest at EVFAC post.
Michigan Leagues of Handweavers Conference post.
The City of Love post.

Teaching at the Michigan League of Handweaver's Conference in Holland, MI. These ladies were amazing.

I spent a lot of time in my dye shed dyeing yarn for myself and my students.
Dyeing red yarn post.
The Dye Shed post.

I took a workshop with Helena Hernmarck. She is an amazing woman who has woven hundreds of monumental tapestries. She was a huge inspiration.
Helena Hernmarck "In Our Nature" post.

I revisited the studio of James Koehler and helped dismantle a loom that I almost bought shortly after he died. The Cranbrook has moved on to a new studio where it will be very loved. There were a LOT of parts in that loom. There were some posts about selling James' looms and the struggle with losing a teacher.
The Shannock loom post. This one you may still be able to get your hands on.
The Cranbrook loom post. (This one sold.)
James and the Cranes post.

 There was the never-ending skunk saga.
A Skunk in the Night post.
Why Skunks are not smarter than I am post.
The Cask of Amontillado post.
And the FINAL skunk post.

We came home from our trip to Mississippi on New Year's Eve to enter a house smelling of skunk. There were no breaches in the foundation, but we did turn off the skunk fan when we left, filling the opening with insulation against the minus 20 degree weather. Turns out the fan is needed to battle the stench even when everything is frozen solid. That is some serious stink.

I took some business courses and worked hard on advancing my tapestry studio business. I had a fantastic photographer do some new portraits of me for the business. Cornelia Theimer Gardella did both my wedding photos and these portraits. She has a great eye. She is also a great tapestry weaver. You know that head shot you're still using from 20 years ago? Consider a new one.
Artist Headshots post.

I started a mailing list and published my first YouTube videos.
Go to this link to subscribe to my newsletter.
Here are the two posts with the YouTube videos:
James Koehler Interlock Join video is in this post.
A little post about making tapestry butterflies is in this post.

 
There were, of course, many many visits to yarn stores. I can't resist them. I think you call someone like me a "fiber freak."
Taos Wool Festival post.
String Theory and yarn bombing post.
Salida Fiber Festival post.
Vermont Yarn stores post.
Double Yarn Stores day post.
The Why I Knit post.  (Answer: To keep from killing people.)

I turned 40. I'm not sure what else to say about that.
The birthday post.
I think you'll agree (if you are a knitter) that this was an awesome birthday present!

 
There was the disappointment of being rejected for ATB9.
The rejection post.

Emergence V: The Center Place; 44 x 44 inches, hand-dyed wool tapestry.

I found out about the closing of Weaving Southwest and the death of Rachel Brown in the same day. The closing of Weaving Southwest came with not only losing my gallery, but a struggle to get paid for my work.
The closing post.

 2012 was a good year. It was full of love, family, adventures, and yarn. But I do hope that 2013 is just a little better... at least in some ways. Best wishes to all of you.

Happy New Year from the snowy and cold southwestern United States!