America Tapestry Alliance Bienniel 8: A road trip to Nebraska

This week I went to Lincoln, Nebraska to see the American Tapestry Alliance's ATB8 show at the Elder Gallery at Nebraska Wesleyan University. I am glad that I went (despite the 1700 mile total drive!). The show was inspiring and I was grateful to have the opportunity to study the tapestries first hand. There were many surprises as the tapestries are quite unlike the reproductions in the catalog. Don't get me wrong, the catalog is lovely, but the photographs don't capture the real feeling of many of the pieces--and how could they? You must experience tapestry in person.

The piece that I kept returning to for study was Hallaig by Joan Baxter from Scotland (link to the poem that inspired the piece is here). This piece made amazing use of color which merited close study. I wish I had a few more days to look at this tapestry. After looking at this piece as well as Maximo Laura's Dos Peces Payaso largely with a look to color use, my own piece (Emergence) looked flat to me.

Dos Peces Payaso (Maximo Laura) on left and Hallaig (Joan Baxter) on right.

So I wandered around the gallery some more asking myself which pieces had that flat look and which seemed to draw me in by the use of color. I found that the pieces that had blocks of color and unmixed color bundles did indeed look flatter than the pieces where there were clearly many colors in each bundle of weft. (I think by "flat" I mean that my eye easily interpreted the color in a certain part of the tapestry and moved on looking for more interesting things to look at. While looking at Hallaig and Dos Peces Payaso, that never happened even after several hours of looking.) My piece definitely had color mixing throughout, but the colors mixed were fairly similar in hue and value. But what happens when you throw purple in with brown or green? Magic. I also found myself fascinated with Sarah Swett's Pizzicato and Jane Freear-Wyld's Raindrops and their use of color.

Hallaig detail

Dos Peces Payaso detail

Pizzicato detail

Raindrops

I had other favorite tapestries for other reasons than color use. I enjoyed Sarah Swett's Hang Up and Draw I think for her use of gesture. I was looking forward to seeing this piece in person as I couldn't figure out how she created such smooth beautiful lines with tapestry from the photo. I was surprised to see that many sections of the weaving that I had interpreted as being actual lines of color in the photograph were just slits that were not sewn. The gestural nature of this piece fascinated me, as did the questions it was asking. Nesting #1 and #2 by Inge Norgaard were also pieces that seemed largely gestural and lived large in my imagination. I loved the movement in these two pieces.

Hang Up and Draw detail

Nesting #1 and Nesting #2

Another question I had before seeing the show was about sett. What warp sett do other tapestry weavers use? I always assumed that Sarah Swett, for example, used a sett that was much closer than mine to get the fantastic detail in her tapestries. I was surprised to see that most of the setts in this show were between 4 and 8 e.p.i. with many being around 6. I have been fascinated for years with how the brain interprets what the eyes see and I think this is what is happening in this case. Apparently weaving at very fine setts is not necessary if you look to color use... and also use the brain's tendency to fill in "missing" information. I currently weave at 10 e.p.i., but after seeing this show will consider other setts depending on what I want to communicate.

There were a few pieces with a fantastic sense of humor, and as I believe we need more humor as humans in most areas of life, these were favorites also... Lany Eila's Any Time Now: One Family's Soft-book Primer of Anticipated Catastrophes and of course, Peggy by Joanne Sanburg. Peggy's face graced one of the announcement postcards for this show.

Any Time Now: One Family's Soft-book Primer of Anticipated Catastrophes

Peggy

Seeing this show was a fantastic learning experience for me. I suddenly felt like there was so much exploration to be done--tapestry worlds opening up right at my feet. I couldn't wait to get home to the loom to play with my own use of color and see what jumped out at me.

Here are some shots of the gallery:

The show at the Elder Gallery closes tomorrow. It will open again January 20th at American Textile History Museum in Lowell, MA. The opening is January 20th from 5:30-7:30. The show runs through May 1, 2011.

Cinnamon Rolls

In this post last month I mentioned that one of the important life questions was "where can I get gluten free cinnamon rolls?"

I'm happy to report that this week I found the answer... (perhaps unsurprisingly they came out of my own kitchen--though I certainly didn't make them!)

Now if I could find the answers to those harder questions...

Dixon Studio Tour and Weaving Southwest show

I always try to make it to the Dixon Studio Tour--first weekend in November. Dixon is a little town that I love and their studio tour is one of the best around. This weekend was beautiful and we spent yesterday in Dixon. I didn't get any pictures of the crowds, but I couldn't believe the number of people packing the streets and studios.

Metier gallery is a weaving gallery owned by Irene Smith. I have enjoyed going there for years. The stone house is fantastic and the gallery is right in the middle of town. As far as weaving on this studio tour goes, Irene is about it!

I visited Stanley Crawford's garlic farm for the first time. Admittedly I mostly wanted to meet the guy who write A Garlic Testament, and he didn't disappoint me. I didn't know that he has written other books. He is most famous for Mayordomo and A Garlic Testament, but he has written a lot of fiction and I took the opportunity to pick up a few of his other books. The garlic was all in the ground for winter but he had squash and books for sale.

One of my neighbors in Velarde is a singer songwriter and she and her band were playing during the studio tour. We caught them at Zuly's, a new cafe in town. Fletcher and John were fun to listen to--I love their celtic/folk style.

Today I was in Taos and went to see the new show at Weaving Southwest. It looks great. There was a lot of work I hadn't seen before from Mary Zicafoose, Skaidrite Mckaeg, Karen Benjamin, Sherri Coffey, La Donna Mayer, Michael Rhode, and others. I loved seeing La Donna's new work as she was an apprentice with James Koehler the same time I was. Her new work is very enjoyable. Way to go La Donna!

And I am hoping this blank wall above the entrance to the yarn room will have a few of my pieces on it soon. They are currently held up in customs in Frankfurt for some unknown reason. Hopefully they will be freed soon and on their way back to New Mexico.

Re-entry

I have been home from Germany for over a month now, but somehow I still feel like the pendulum hasn't swing back to the center yet (Ever read The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allen Poe? He was one of my favorites as a kid--my Dad had a scary story-telling voice. And no, I'm not exactly saying that my job is like the Inquisition). Perhaps it never really stops swinging though. Of course finishing a 3-year project and pulling together two major shows was a lot of work. I forget this. I forget that recovery time is needed and that it is okay to relax... to review the photos, write the articles, come out of the foggy glow left by a fantastic European trip... and hopefully come back to the loom again and start to weave.

I started a small piece on my Mirrix last week and ended up tearing out a bunch of it. This is called frogging when you're knitting, but unlike knitting, the weaving has to be undone one pick at a time. When you're tearing out a pretty fair isle sock, you just rip. Anyway, the weaving had to be ripped back since the colors weren't working. Maybe I should just be glad I have learned enough to know when the colors aren't working while I'm still weaving it! (photo is before ripping... we'll see what the new colors look like this week)

Anyway, un-weaving seemed to go with my general struggle the past month. I was reading an excellent memoir by No Way Ray Echols titled A Thru-Hiker's Heart (about his hike of the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada)... I tend to read hiking books when I am feeling a little bogged down. At the end of the book he talks about his return to his "regular" life. He says, "...There is an undercurrent, like a sub-sonic speaker, creating an indefinable itch, a tension in the neck and shoulders. It's fear... and anger. I am afraid that I will not be able to hold on to what I've found these solitary months along the trail. That I will, all too soon, be once again trapped by the non-essential, embroiled in the unimportant, snared by responsibilities of living in a world where others must be taken into account. I fear that in the coming weeks it will all be come fuzzed and gossamer. I will become more and more entangled, like a freeway driver in rush hour traffic, until all that seems real is the shouting and the honking, the grimacing and the groaning...."

I am afraid that I will forget the experiences of the summer and fall--of being part of two fantastic shows, of completing a long project, of forgetting what I have learned before I really understand what that was. Hiking, especially long-distance hiking, is an activity that quiets your brain and makes you realize how simple life can be in any given moment. It is hard to hear the quiet when squirming under an unmanageable job, too much driving, and the call of so-many-things-that-have-to-be-done. So I am starting at the only place I can start. I am asking the important questions: "What are those things that I think really have to be done?", "Is that really true?", "What things do I not have to do?", and "Where can I get gluten free cinnamon rolls?"

Some pictures from Chama, NM where I stay during the week. Ostensibly the For Rent sign used to have a trailer behind it, but they have been pulling trailers out of this subdivision this fall--the one next to mine and one on the next street just in the last few weeks. I hope they don't take mine while I'm at home some weekend. My Mirrix is in there.

The colors are beautiful... and since this photo was taken a few days ago, most likely covered with snow now.

Halcyon Days II

Here is a piece I finished last spring. I realized while searching my blog for a photo of it today that I never put it there or on my website. This piece was in both the Interwoven Traditions shows in Albuquerque and Erfurt, Germany. Actually, it is still in Germany. That show comes down the end of October. This was one of those pieces that I did not immediately like but that grew on me the longer I looked at it. There is a period where I have to put a tapestry away when it comes off the loom. I think I have been too close to it for too long and invariably I am disgruntled with it when it initially emerges. I am not sure if this is because of the inordinate amount of time (usually much longer than I had planned) that it takes for it to be finished, or because the finished piece doesn't look like the tapestry in my minds eye.

So I put it away for awhile. Then eventually I do get it out (for a show or because Teresa has managed to sell all of my tapestries), do the finishing, and hang it up in my living room. Usually at that point I start to see the initial idea-- the inspiration that sparked the piece. And sometimes when I look at it for awhile I see something completely different in the work and I like it even better. I like the adventure of that.

Here she is...

Halcyon Days II; 26 X 40 inches, hand-dyed wool tapestry

What shall we call this October 11th?

Some call it Columbus day, but that seems disrespectful to the people who lived here before Columbus came...

The school in which I work (in a native american community) calls it Jicarilla Cultural Day--which is a good name for a day we are going to get off--federal holiday, public school...

Today is also National Coming Out Day... a good day to remember the things we are hiding and perhaps should not.

Here is the yarn I dyed last weekend for the next couple pieces. I think you'll find the palette unsurprising.

I know there are now photos floating around out there of the ATB8 show in Lincoln, NE. The opening was this past weekend and I wish that I could have gone! I very much wanted to attend the Textile Society of America symposium, but the timing was off for me. So if anyone has photos of the show, I'd love to see them!

Instead, I went on a somewhat cheaper adventure this weekend to southern Utah... a nice camping trip, fantastic weather, lots of friends and family...

October in New Mexico

Colors at Cumbres Pass on the border between NM and CO.

I am starting to get back into the swing of work and weaving after the trip to Europe. I earn my keep by working in the public schools in rural NM. I am currently staying in Chama and this week is THE week that the colors are changing.

I love hiking long trails, and often, especially after school (work) has started again for the year, I wish I was out on the trail somewhere. I have seen a few SOBO CDT thru's in Chama lately and wish I could spend the day listening to their adventures.

Despite the burning of a trestle this summer a few miles out of Chama, the Cumbres and Toltec railroad is still running. They are busing people up to Cumbres pass (shown here at sunset) and running from there.
I also have managed to get some dyeing done the last two weekends. I am hoping that once I start weaving the next two pieces, I will find that these colors are okay. Here are a few shots of my dye set-up. I certainly hope for my own dye studio one day, though this works for now. Carports are great things.


Taos Wool Festival was also this weekend. Emmy and I went yesterday and visited the alpaca, llamas, and angora bunnies. There was also some good yarn for sale as usual. Since I just bought a suitcase full of knitting yarn in Germany, I didn't buy anything this year at Wool Fest (can you believe it?).