A show not to be missed:
In just another week, Living With Beauty: Handwoven Textiles for the Home will celebrate opening night at the Business of Art Center (BAC) in Manitou Springs, CO. I’m very excited about this international jurried show. It is sponsored by our guild, Pikes Peak Weavers Guild, in tandem with the BAC. Susan Bowman and Beverly Weaver have spent the past two years coordinating the many details that taking on this type of show entails and have done an outstanding job.
My small contribution was the design of the show’s webpage , the design of the photobook cover, and to act as art director for the show’s photobook/catalog (see the cover above). We just received the finished catalogs last week hot off the printer’s press. I’m also pleased that several pieces I had photographed wound up being juried into the show — the weavers’ works are just gorgeous. We had entries from as far away as New Zealand and Australia. I’m still sworn to secrecy about who has been jurried into the show as the juror, Betsy Blumenthal, doesn’t want to know any names until she completes the final prize distribution. We have $4000.00 in prizes to be awarded and it’s going to be an exciting opening night!
The show will be posted to our guild’s website toward the end of the summer.
Handwovens for the home:
“From the humble dishcloth to the complex tapestry,
each textile carries within it the intent of the artist
to add beauty to our daily lives.” ~Betsy Blumenthal
Betsy really says it all right there. Always, there is that perceived line between art and craft. I will weigh in by saying that I don’t believe in that line – there is no artisan out there who does not have an artist within her, and no artist who does not have an artisan within. I consider myself an artisan — that blend between artist and craftsman — trained as a fine artist, and with the skills to practice that training in an applied setting no matter what the medium. While I’ve had many years of formal training in the fine arts (and have taught color theory, graphic arts, drawing, painting, and digital arts) I’ve also had many years of self discovery and am self taught in numerous areas, including weaving. Training, by my definition doesn’t have to be formal. I love the word autodidact — self learner.
Shows like Living With Beauty, are such crystal examples of artisanship. The work that I have been priviledged to view while designing the photobook just really brings home how something as small and everyday as a napkin or throw pillow can hold its own when placed against elaborate wall hangings, tapestries, and screens. The key word in artisan, is ‘art.’ All skilled weavers are artists — with eyes for color, texture, design, and execution.
Working on my small part of this big project with Beverly and Susan really has inspired me to want to explore handwovens for the home to the nth degree — to take something as humble as a dishcloth and make it as beautiful and well executed as possible is a challenge that Living With Beauty shows us is one worthy of every weaver — no matter what label that person gives her/himself.
Speaking of, I know I said I was going to put on a warp for dish towels and learn my new end feed shuttles. Well, what started out to be dishtowels turned into a table runner as I was designing. I just couldn’t help myself . . . am now off to finish threading — only 550 more threads to go!
Weave like an Egyptian, or a 21st century autodidact artisan,
Jane
PS: Cally – I haven’t forgotten the meme, I promise! *grin*