Artists seem driven to create. The inspiration that influences how and what they create comes from many sources. With diverse backgrounds, experiences, and personalities, the results can be varied, complex, and unique. Even the medium chosen to express that drive influences the result.
As a professional weaver, I have most often been influenced by the weaving styles of Native American, Swedish, and African cultures, though many other cultures have certainly had a bearing on my work. I realized this after many years into my weaving career, as I searched to identify the style in which I created. Then it became so apparent that I wondered why I had not recognized the influences earlier. Until I was asked to identify my style, I had been satisfied with the results I was achieving and never needed a label.
Puzzle Takes Shape
In retrospect, it's easier to put the influential pieces into the whole creative puzzle. At the age of six, I moved with my family to west Texas. My father traveled the Southwestern states covering the oil fields, and we often accompanied him. I saw Navajo weavers at remote trading posts on the reservation. I remember being fascinated by them and their craft. This was my first exposure to weaving, and its subtle impact was to surface years later.
One day, during my sophomore year at the Cleveland Institute of Art, I wandered into the school's Weaving Department. Awed by the variety of equipment and the mechanical aspect of the looms, I changed majors immediately and began a career in weaving. My education in weaving was very heavily influenced by Brita Sjoman, my teacher at the Institute. A Swede, she was my first contact with the Anglo weaving world, and I liked what I saw and learned very much. Brita laid a strict and traditional foundation in weaving that has become imbedded in my way of thinking and my overall approach to the art.
After graduation with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Weaving and Textile Design, I worked two years at the Cleveland Museum of Art. In 1968, the first exhibition of the Katherine White collection of African Art was installed. The collection consisted of more than 2,000 objects, from bone bracelets to carved masks to magnificent raffia and grass dance and ceremonial costumes. It was for this overwhelming exhibit that I gave up my lunch day after day. The collection had a vitality and excitement that stirs my emotions even now. This magnificent art collection is now permanently housed at the Seattle Art Museum.
War Shield Breakthrough
After a few years of constant weaving without apparent direction, I began a series of small hangings with a definite feeling of African and Native American Plains Indians war shields. Each successive piece grew more detailed, usually consisting of a circle shape at the top and long linen, tied in rya knots, flowing beneath like a chamois. Then, they began to take a different form. The lower portion of the piece folded vertically and fit into a corner with the circle turned diagonally and attaching at the sides. From this, the idea evolved into the circle becoming a negative shape with elaborate bands woven separately and added to exemplify the inner edge of the negative space. What I'd woven to be a wall hanging came
...
Read Full Article
|
