Validation

I have loved all the comments on my last post about getting an MFA (master of fine arts). Thank you all for your thoughtful responses.

I like Juliet's suggestion of doing an ATA Tapestry Topics issue on this topic. I think there are probably a lot of fiber artists out there with opinions on the subject.

(I have also found out lately that there are a lot of fiber artists out there with opinions on spinning wheels. Thanks to the people who said, "Try out lots of wheels." I am going to do just that at Convergence. And thanks to EVFAC for loaning me this "emergency" Louet wheel until then! And yes, my lateral epicondylitis is feeling much better partly thanks to the hand therapist living in my head. Whew--sometimes my writing "style" is exhausting.)

How do we (people-who-define-ourselves-as-artists-sometimes) fill that need to "feel like an artist" when we don't have a degree in art? Work in fiber has traditionally been considered craft, not fine art. Having a tapestry of your painting woven was once considered a great honor and a mark of how good your art was (and places like the Victorian Tapestry Workshop in Australia still do this)--and these tapestries are fabulous, but those weavers are not the artists, they are the technicians. If we both design and weave a tapestry perhaps we are both an artist and a technician. Or is the act of weaving the tapestry any different than the act of painting a painting? Painters also need skill in craft and are also "technicians".

I do not believe, as some artists seem to, that craft is a dirty word. Craft has been a unifying force in our country in so many eras in history. My job-that-pays-the-bills, occupational therapy, started as a mental health profession that did crafts with soldiers returning from WWI to facilitate return to normal mental functioning. (About here I am wondering if I was born in the wrong era.)

Lyn asked how we fill the need to become "more" of an artist? And I think many of us wonder why we should feel we need to validate our art in the first place.

I love all the ideas about stimulating creativity: artist residencies, classes in other media, books, taking college classes but not necessarily in a degree-seeking program... I read something not long ago about a practice of carrying around a small sketch book/journal for ideas and making much of your day about creative process. I have found that when I do this, it really works. I do pull the little moleskine out of my jeans pocket and scribble something down and that gets me thinking and before I know it I have three more ideas. Most of these ideas will never make it into a tapestry, but it gets my creativity flowing and that is what is most important.

Some new questions I am mulling over tonight:

Is tapestry weaving an art form or a decorative art? In what way is it each or both? The word craft comes into play there also. I am finishing the Bauhaus Tapestry Project this summer and fall with shows in Albuquerque, NM and Erfurt, Germany. My study of the Bauhaus also brings up some of these questions. Initially, the Bauhaus had a master of form and a master of craft in each workshop. The master of form, perhaps unsurprisingly, got paid better than the master of craft. The idea however, was that the student had to learn both the craftsmanship of making something and the artistic design skills to make it a piece of art. The Bauhaus had the added intellectual goal of relating each kind of art to it's place in architecture.

All of these questions are murky and my thoughts about them are not at all clear--which is undoubtedly evident in this post. It is good to wonder about them however.

And finally, at least for tonight, thanks to Renee for saying, "You don't need a degree to have validation in the art world. Your work is your validation."

I agree Renee. I don't think I need an MFA to make me a "real" artist. But I do think that the work in a collaborative setting is extremely valuable, sometimes frustrating, and mostly fruitful. I will continue to look for ways to interact with other artists and teachers from my seat right here for now.

A camera for tapestries...

I have been wanting to get a new camera to photograph my tapestries for a long time. A generous gift from my grandfather has allowed me to finally get a digital Nikon SLR and though I haven't taken one picture of a finished tapestry, I am having fun with it.

On my 14th birthday (alas, many years ago now), my parents bought me a Pentax K1000 single lens reflex camera. The very first roll of film--carefully chosen photos of my family and a set of shots of hummingbirds at Lake Granby where we were on vacation--came back in a very skinny package from the developer. The roll was unexposed. Turns out the Pentax K1000 has a tricky film start and that roll never went through the camera. I was devastated, but started again and pretty soon learned how to take all kinds of pictures including those hummingbird pictures (which somehow got me to the regional science fair one year).

Now I have my very own digital SLR. Mostly I have to admit that I use it like a point and shoot--in the auto mode. But I love that little sound of the mirror slapping. It reminds me of the years of the Pentax K1000. I'm sure I'll get around to taking better photos of my tapestries--especially the ones for the Interwoven Traditions: New Mexico and Bauhaus shows this summer and fall, but for now I'm just messing around.

Thanks Grandpa!

Today at Plaza Blanca. Look Ma! New hiking shoes!

Quality in Art...

...or "Why isn't tapestry considered an art form in many places?"

I was having this discussion with my weaving mentor yesterday in Santa Fe. It is a long-standing discussion which is pretty one-sided as we both agree that tapestry struggles to be recognized as an art form. A case in point is HGA's difficulty finding venues for exhibits during Convergence. We were lucky to get a venue at Open Spaces Gallery for our Bauhaus exhibit (Interwoven Traditions: New Mexico and Bauhaus), but many people were not so lucky. The small format ATA show ended up in Santa Fe and the ATB8 show didn't find a venue at all in New Mexico. I heard from HGA and ATA people looking for spaces that what they were hearing from galleries was that they only focused on "traditional" weaving. In New Mexico, that refers to the traditions of the Navajo and Hispanic weavers.

When I look at "fiber shows" I often am amazed at the poor craftsmanship that is hung on the wall and called art. It is an age-old debate, what constitutes art, but for me good craftsmanship is part of the equation. I think as tapestry artists, if we can't make good-quality work to start with, we are asking to be considered simply "craft." And this leads to situations where high-quality tapestry shows like ATB8 or an ATA show can't find a venue in a major American city--one that is steeped in art and surrounded by cultures devoted to weaving. ...just my beginning thoughts on the matter.

And for visual interest, a photo from a hike I took Saturday near Velarde, NM... an old adobe building that had a descanso inside it.

And here is a photo of some cranes at the Bosque del Apache during morning fly out a few weeks ago. I have watched them fly over my house in fast-moving clots of croaking sandhills through most of February. They seem to be gone now. When I was in the San Luis Valley a week ago, I was able to visit them again at the Monte Vista Wildlife Refuge. My Pentax point and shoot 4 megapixel is no match for the mega-cameras that appear at the refuge, but this shot isn't bad (at least at low resolution in small size).

Another Bauhaus Project Update

I have written a fair bit about the Bauhaus Tapestry Project that I am working on in conjunction with James Koehler and Cornelia Theimer Gardella. The project is in full swing and has several different facets. It is a mentoring project between James and Conni and I including study of Bauhaus principles and how those principles have impacted our current work as contemporary tapestry weavers. It also includes two shows in 2010. The first is in Albuquerque during Convergence and the second is in Erfurt, Germany. The project started as an idea of Cornelia's as 2009 was the 90th anniversary of the Bauhaus and includes drawing parallels between the Germany Bauhaus ideals and our current practice as artists in northern NM (as well as Cornelia's work in Germany). Please see our website for the project description and other details if you're interested HERE.

We are still looking for funding for this project. If anyone has any ideas of where to get about $10,000, please let me know! I'm not a grant writer and we seem to be running out of ideas. We have a fiscal sponsor but money for the arts is slim right now. Most of the money is for a catalog which will include photos and descriptions of our process and connections to the Bauhaus, for the travel to Germany, and for shipping work there and back. Info on our fiscal sponsor is on the Bauhaus Tapestry Project website.

Lastly, if you are a tapestry weaver and you haven't seen Silvia Heyden's article On the 90th anniversary of the Bauhaus movement: How the Bauhaus tradition has continued to inspire me for over 50 years of tapestry weaving, take a look at it. It is in the Winter 2009 issue of Tapestry Topics (newsletter of the American Tapestry Alliance) and can be seen online here. Unfortunately they were not able to put the entire text of the article online, so the combination of photos on the internet and the printed version of the magazine is needed.

Thanks also to Lyn Hart for her great review of the workshop Silvia presented in Mendocino in July. Reading these two articles made me wish I had been able to take this workshop with Silvia!

This photo is just to prove that I have been weaving. I need to get this piece and two more done before the show opens in July--and they have to be done early enough to get a catalog printed before Convergence! I have some work to do.

And lastly and completely unrelatedly--I was looking through one of my kitchen cupboards this morning and found some excellent potato specimens in a gorgeous state of growth. I didn't know potatoes could put out this kind of color! I was quite pleased... well, not pleased that I have to compost 6 big potatoes AGAIN, but very pleased by the purple shoots.

Mirrix Experiments

One of my relatives who is very familiar with with horizontal looms, but not with small tapestry looms (okay, it was my Dad) was asking me about this new Mirrix loom that I purchased so I'd have something portable to take with me when I'm away from home. Here are a few explanatory photos.

Shedding Device

Warp is wrapped around top and bottom bar and there is a coil at the top that can be changed with different spacing.

Things I have noticed so far:

1. I have a lot of trouble bubbling correctly when the warp is vertical! This is going to take some getting used to or I'm going to have tendonitis before you can say "extensive wrist flexion for prolonged periods of time."

2. The Mirrix is a great little loom! I love the shedding device which seems to work smoothly and effectively. I purchased the Mirrix heddles and they were so easy to put on. I couldn't face the thought of making 200 heddles, so I looked at it as an investment in sanity. Of course I haven't woven much more than this, so maybe I should get back to you on how much I like this loom.

3. The new beater I bought for my foray into vertical tapestry weaving is great. Thanks to Lyn Hart for recommending it! It is the Maggie fork from Magpie Woodworks. I didn't get the weighted version yet Lyn, but probably will get one of those too! The teeth are part of a dog comb and they are smooth and strong. I really recommend this tapestry beater! If you don't believe me, ask Lyn.

4. The first piece I am doing is a design done by a 9 year old friend of mine (well, she is now 10, but she was 9 when she drew this cartoon for me--I'm a little slow at getting to this project which shouldn't really surprise anyone). The subject is a unicorn and I can't help having visions of the unicorn tapestries at the Cloisters in NYC. I sort of hope she'll let me enter it into one of the Convergence shows, but it is up to her! It is her design. What 10-year-old wouldn't want her name on a piece in a Convergence or ATA show? (I realize this probably means absolutely nothing to a 10-year-old who lives in Mississippi, but maybe a bribery trip to SEE the tapestry in Albuquerque would work.) Weaving something realistic is a significant departure from my usual weaving, so the whole thing is mostly a crap shoot anyway. I won't even talk about the fact that this piece is distracting me from the much-needed work I have to do on the body of work for the shows in Albuquerque and Germany for my Bauhaus Tapestry Project.