Summer reading

Where I live it's really hot and humid--perfect weather for staying inside, making art and reading!  I want to share with you some books I've enjoyed since the start of the year.

I've dived deep into reading about tapestry.  For pure eye candy, you can't beat exhibition catalogs.

This is the catalog of the American Tapestry Alliance Biennial 11 2016, a juried show that just opened in South Bend, Indiana.  (The show will travel through April 2017 to Topeka, Kansas and San Jose, California). The catalog is beautifully produced with full-color images of each of the 36 pieces selected by juror Janet Koplos.  It is always good to see what one's fellow practitioners are doing, and for me it was inspiring to see intriguing imagery married to impeccable and, in some cases innovative, technique.  I also enjoyed reading each artist's statement.  You can learn more about the show HERE and order the catalog HERE.

Honoring Tradition, Inspiring Innovation:  the catalog of ATA's Small Tapestry International 4, a juried show dedicated to small format work (no more than 20" in any dimension).  The show, which also appeared in  three venues in 2015 and 2016, has closed.  Again, each piece is portrayed in full color and each artist's statement is included. I was excited by the ways in which many artists working small-scale have big ideas about pushing both the content and the technique of tapestry. Learn more HERE and order the catalog HERE.

I've also enjoyed reading about the lives and work of three contemporary tapestry weavers.

Nezhnie:  Weaver and Innovative Artist by Linda Rees.  This account of the life and work of tapestry artist Muriel Nezhnie Helfman (1934-2002) was fascinating to me.  Nezhnie managed to balance a career producing both commissioned tapestries, woven by herself and several assistant weavers, with doing her own pieces--and raising a family at the same time.  I especially enjoyed seeing how she handled portraits.  Nezhnie is best known for a series of tapestries she did about the Holocaust.  I found it absorbing to read about her technical explorations.  I found the book HERE.

Christine Laffer:  Tapestry and Transformation by Carole Greene.  Christine Laffer recounts her life and work in her own words.  She outlines her struggle to learn to weave tapestry as part of her fine arts studies in the U.S. and at an internship at the Gobelins workshop in France.  She describes the development of her work, which has included both large commissioned pieces and personal pieces. Laffer has worked both in traditional modes and incorporated tapestry techniques into mixed media and 3-D work.  Her thoughtful reflections about the art and social issues that have inspired her and her engagement with questions about the place of tapestry in art history and in contemporary art, are well worth reading. I found the book HERE.

Helena Hernmarck:  Tapestry Artist by Monica Boman and Patricia Malarcher.  Hernmarck is known for massive, so-called photorealistic pieces commissioned for specific architectural spaces. I've been curious about her work since seeing a small piece in a museum show years ago.  She has adapted the traditional weft-faced tapestry weave to create richly textured surfaces in which the warp plays an important role.  It was a pleasure to study the full-color detail photos of several works, to understand how images that read as detailed realism from a distance dissolve into colored pixels up close.  You can read more about her work and her methods in Rebecca Mezoff's post about a workshop Rebecca took with Helena HERE.  You can find the book HERE.  (Yikes!  The price has gone up since I ordered it!)

 I saw a show this spring at the Smithonian's National Museum of the American Indian about the work of Kay Walkingstick.  Since then I've also really enjoyed the catalog of that show.

Kay Walkingstick is a part-Cherokee painter whose work and career resonated with me.  It was easy for me to fall in love with her paintings, such as the one on the catalog cover above, which meld the southwestern landscape with patterns from Native beadwork and textiles.  But I also loved watching the evolution of her work from brightly colored pop-influenced images of the early 1970s, through richly textured abstractions, to her signature diptychs that pair realism and abstract symbolism.  She has not shied away from exploring her identity as a woman and as an Indian in her work.  The events of her personal life and her own spiritual search are also reflected.  She has worked occasionally in
3-D and in book formats as well.  (If you're in DC this summer I highly recommend the show-- the Museum itself is a must-see anyway, in my opinion.)  If you can't get to DC, the catalog is a real treat and can be found HERE.

Books like these are essential nourishment for this artist's soul.  Hope this review whets your appetite for some luscious art reading.  And let us know what you're reading these days!

Book Report, Part 2: "Why We Make Things and Why It Matters"

Last week I shared my enthusiasm for Peter Korn's book Why We Make Things and Why It Matters:  The Education of a Craftsman.  I quoted him on the creative impulse and the joys of making things with our hands.   There is so much wisdom and insight in Korn's book that I want to spend some time this week considering what he has to say about the challenges of the creative life.

Peter is acutely perceptive and brutally honest on the subject of his struggle to make a living solely by crafting furniture: 

[T]he desire to work alone and apart is self-defeating.  There simply isn't enough time in a week to put in sufficient billable hours at the bench and still do all the other work that a successful business requires--maintenance, purchasing, bookkeeping, marketing, customer relations, and so forth.  Furthermore, working in isolation doesn't foster the substantial engagement with community it takes to cultivate a local market for custom-made furniture. . . .

Success was also limited by intrinsic properties of the material with which I was working, which was my own self  [emphasis added].  I was, among other things, not well suited to marketing my work, perhaps because it felt too much like self-promotion, perhaps because it entailed so much rejection. 

Many of us who are solo makers struggle with this.  We are told we need to spend at least 50% of our working hours on marketing and business tasks in order to be financially successful.  When your medium is an inherently slow one, like woodworking or weaving, this can seem an impossible goal.  You won't have enough work to market in the first place if you don't spend more than 50% of your working time actually making things!  And while we may feel confident (most of the time) about our artistic skills, many of us are untrained and out of our depth on the business side.

Peter Korn has an interesting take on the old dilemma of how much to "sell out" one's personal artistic vision in order to make work that responds to popular tastes.  He says this tension is a "healthy phenomenon" that imposes "the discipline of relevance" on the artist.  Korn says while the market is not perfect, and doubtless great artistic work is ignored every day, "commerce is our most effective mass-distribution system for the material expression of ideas."

When I first began to offer handwovens for sale, I quickly learned that simply following my own whims as a weaver, my own color preferences, pursuing my own bliss at the loom, would not necessarily result in work with a place in the market.  I have to keep firmly in mind what other people can wear, can use, and are willing to pay for.  I weave with a lot of neutral colors because they are versatile and "go with everything."  I actually enjoy finding the sweet spot where my own creative inspiration intersects with what my clients want to buy and wear.  It is good to work within limits. 

In the final analysis, making craft is deeply soul-satisfying in ways that few other human activities are.  Rather than being merely consumers in the world, we are producers, creators, meaning-makers.  Peter Korn writes: 

It is a given that, individually and collectively, we think our world into being.  The question is:  How do we choose to go about it?  Do we passively assemble our narratives from a cultural smorgasbord?  Or do we test the recipes of others in our own kitchens?  Do we take responsibility for some small portion of the world as we create it?  My experience is that steering a proactive course--making the effort to think for myself--has been the wellspring of a good life.  . .  .

Making art or craft and sharing it with others is one way of resolving the existential dilemma we all face--how am I to be human in this world?  Or, as poet May Sarton puts it,

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

Newest tapestry in progress--my initials mpe are the only imagery woven so far.

 

Book Report: "Why We Make Things and Why It Matters"

 At the start of the summer I shared with you the stack of reading I hoped to do.  I actually have managed to finish most of the books, but the one that has made the biggest impression on me is Peter Korn's Why We Make Things and Why It Matters:  The Education of a Craftsman.  Korn is a woodworker who hoped to make a living from designing and constructing one-off pieces of finely crafted furniture.  After a time, he found that he would have to supplement his income with teaching, as many artists and artisans do.  He discovered he loved teaching and loved working in a school community, and eventually he founded the non-profit Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine, where he is Executive Director.

Why am I running on about a woodworker, you may ask, in a blog called "talking textiles"?  Well, making a living in craft offers the same rewards--and raises the same issues--no matter what your medium.  I think the best path here is to let Peter's words speak for themselves.   Here are a few of the passages that really spoke to me:

[W]e practice contemporary craft as a process of self-transformation . . . .  The simple truth is that people who engage in creative practice go into the studio first and foremost because they expect to emerge from the other end of the creative gauntlet as different people. 

Peter writes of how he hoped to cultivate integrity in himself, to create heirloom pieces and thus a connection with future generations, and to develop competence and excellence in a given discipline.  For myself, one reason I fell in love with making textiles--while working as an English teacher at the time--was I wanted a way to say a joyful YES more often in my life, rather than simply wielding the red pen as a critic.  I wanted to see if I could develop the skills to make a beautiful, functional object.  Here's Peter Korn again:

[D]esign is a skill like any other.  As with sharpening a chisel or handling a drawknife, anyone can improve through education, practice, and reflection.  To be sure, some individuals are more innately gifted at design than others. . . But there is no reason why the rest of us should not also enjoy the trials and rewards of creative engagement with reasonable success and genuine pleasure, and perhaps an occasional flash of serendipitous brilliance.

All I can say about this is, Amen, brother!  Everyone can enjoy making visual art, given enough encouragement, guidance, and the chance to practice.  As with any other learned skill, the more you do it, the better you get.  Most of us will never see our work hang in a major museum--that doesn't mean we can't enjoy the exciting challenges and immense satisfaction of crafting the best work we can.  Peter again:

I discovered within myself the capacity to transform a wisp of thought into an enduring, beautiful object.  I see this same empowering revelation take place in my students today as they perform the miracle of creation.  This, I would suggest, is precisely what makes creative practice such a generous source of fulfillment, beyond the pleasure of engaging heart, head and hand in unison.  It exercises one's innate capacity to re-form the given world in ways that matter.

I recall vividly the joy I felt when it slowly dawned on me that making textile art draws on everything I have and know--from my liberal arts education to my spirituality to the basic sewing skills I learned as a kid in 4-H.  When we work with our hands to make something that exists in the physical world, we are participating in the larger mystery of creation.  Powerful stuff!  And if that work connects somehow with someone else, well, it doesn't get any better than that. 

If you are an artist or craftsperson who regularly makes things, you know what Peter Korn is talking about.  If you're not--why not try your hand? 

 A Light Shines, bead embroidery by Molly Elkind

 

summer reading

Memorial Day is behind us, the weather is warming up and the kids are out of school, or soon will be.  It's time to look forward to lazy late afternoons on the deck, reading and sipping your favorite fizzy beverage.  Here's my stack of summer reading, from bottom to top:

The Coptic Tapestry Albums and the Archaeologist of Antinoe, Albert Gayet, by Nancy Arthur Hoskins.  I've been taken lately by the charm and communicative power of ancient Coptic Egyptian tapestry.  Contemporary tapestry artists admire Coptic weavers for their ability to invent their designs as they wove, without elaborate prepared cartoons.  I want to know more, and this book is one of the few I can find on the subject.  So far it's fascinating. 

Weave-Knit-Wear by Judith Shangold.  I've looked through this book once or twice but I want to delve into it more deeply, studying the instructions for fitting, pattern-making and seams in handwoven fabric for garments.   Beyond scarves and wraps, there are patterns here for jackets, vests, tunics, bags and even a baby sack.  Lots of gorgeous color photos have whet my appetite to finally get serious about handwoven garments.

Simple Woven Garments by Sara Goldenburg and Jane Patrick.  Again, lots of mouth-watering photos for inspiration.  I like how several of the projects in this book offer suggestions for variations in styling and yarn choices. Lots of these projects seem designed for the rigid heddle loom, which excels at using novelty yarns that are thicker or more delicate than those I usually use. Further study is needed here. 

Woven to Wear by Marilyn Murphy.  Are you noticing a theme here?  When I try something new I tend to start by researching it to death.  I've had this book for awhile now and flagged several pages of projects I want to make and nifty tips on weaving and sewing.  There are sections on Yarn, Drape, Designing, Weaving Tips and Techniques, and Finishing.  A nice bonus is two-page spreads about several noted designers of handwoven garments. 

Unexpected Afghans, by Robyn Chaculla.  My dear daughter gave me this book for Mother's Day.  I've been cheating on my weaving a bit with crochet at odd moments here and there, and she knew I was looking for ideas for an afghan that might serve as a bed covering.  There are projects ranging from retro 70's-style granny square designs (only a couple) to elegant, clean-lined modern pieces. I never knew you could do cables in crochet!   Now my problem is, how to choose just one to begin?

A Life in the Arts:  Practical Guidance and Inspiration for Creative & Performing Artists by Eric Maisel.  Maybe this book will help.  I've started it and stopped it a few times--the bookmark is in the chapter on Blocks!--but every time I return to it I'm amazed at the wisdom to be found.  I've turned down many pages, and underlined and starred many passages.  Encouragement for the journey from a psychotherapist who has specialized in helping artists for decades. 

Warp & Weft:  Woven Textiles in Fashion, Art and Interiors by Jessica Hemmings.  Darling son gave me this on Mother's Day.  (Do my kids have my number or what?  Books always fit.)  I'm reading this now and really enjoying this look at cutting-edge textiles from a noted scholar in the field.  So far I've seen how artists have pushed conventional notions of Threads, Light, Motion, and Sound.  I'm really looking forward to the next chapter, on Emotion. 

Why We Make Things and Why It Matters:  The Education of a Craftsman by Peter Korn.  This was a Christmas gift; it's been on my bedside table for too long now.  Korn has been making furniture for about 40 years, but this is not a how-to book; it's more concerned with how making things can create meaning and fulfillment in counter-cultural ways.  I expect to find more affirmation of the handmade life here.  

The Handmade Marketplace, 2nd edition, by Kari Chapin.  I am always looking for marketing advice.  This book is chock-full of ideas and tips that I've flagged and need to follow through on, from a young DIYer who's much more adept at social media than I am.

Looks like I've got plenty to keep me busy into the fall.  What's on your summer reading list?