I had wonderful adventures in Tennessee and Mississippi
last week. My trip started off a little
rocky with winter weather messing up my flights. I ended up spending some quality time in the
Detroit air port waiting to fly into Memphis.
To make matters worse, I had been routed to Minneapolis and was walking
down the entryway to the plane when I heard my name faintly called, rescuing me
from a few more unwanted hours in transit.
The good news was that I decided to see about checking in my needle
felting materials on the TSA sites before I left and learned that they were
acceptable as part of my carry-on stash, along with with some snacks. I sat in Detroit and poking away at
carrots. There’s always a bright side
and my progress was good, although I suppose I got a few interested looks.
At the end of my expedition I found the welcoming arms of
the the Memphis Guild of Handloom Weavers.
They had invited me to do a workshop for their group and fourteen people
signed up. That’s a good size and they
comprised an incredibly enthusiastic bunch with varied experiences.
Some had been doing tapestry weaving for
years, while others were learning to distinguish the warp and weft. We all held hands and worked through the
process together. I was well supplied
with yarns and materials for inclusion into the weavings. I had shipped three big boxes of supplies,
plus I jam-packed a checked suitcase full of more recycled weaving
materials. Off we went!
I always start my workshops with a little history of who I
am and how I got to the point of my fiber art career. It’s fun to watch people’s faces when they
hear about my path to my fiber artist career. I have a Ph.D. from the University of Western Ontario
in the Plant Sciences department doing molecular genetics.
I enjoy trying to convince people that
creating fiber art and planning a genetic screen are both very creative
processes that depend heavily on planning, creative thinking and problem
solving.
I’ve done a lot of workshops, and I always enjoy traveling
to meet new people and put them on. In
part, I think that’s because I don’t do cookie-cutter workshops. I don’t want everyone to have the same object
to compare at the end. Each person is
encouraged to delve into their own creative abilities and create something that
truly reflects them.
Some people come to
workshops with a photo, and one in particular this time brought a beautiful
image from a trip to China. The colors
of orangey-red branches on a tree that I think was in the birch family stood in
the foreground with fabulous teal blue water and shore in the background. In the mid ground there were reticulated
white branches, which came together in a beautiful composition. That’s what she wanted to emulate, and she
did!
I’m looking forward to getting an
image of the completed piece. Another
person traveled a fair distance to attend the workshop and must have woven all
night in the hotel room to create the art that came together over the
weekend. She had a very clear vision of
where she was going with her piece.
Others very very happy to just do samplers and experience all of the
varied techniques that I introduce and explore using the mountain of materials
and colors available for their compositions.
In so many ways my workshops prove to be a starting point
for the participants. I give them
permission to be creative without all the rules and structure they have
embraced in the past. It’s a lot of fun
to look at the weavings and watch how tight and rigid and consistent the first
few rows appear. The emerging rows tell
a temporal story, with the highest rows revealing the most relaxed and
undulating structures.
The emerging
artwork parallels my relationship with the participants as we become more
relaxed with each other and are able to share our experiences. I feel that I come home with mountains of new
ideas. It’s hard to say goodbye to all
of my new friends.
I need to mention my side excursion that accompanied my trip
to Memphis, which was a visit with relatives in Oxford Mississippi. They told me that their house was only an
hour or so from Memphis, and they volunteered to host me for a couple of days
outside of the workshop. It was so much
fun to see all of the places and people connected with the family stories I’ve
heard over the years. Now when Martha
talks about the basketball arena and her seats I’ll know exactly where she
is. When they talk about McEwen’s restaurant downtown I can remember our table, which is right in the middle of the
website picture. We stopped into Martha’s
daughter’s store, Amy Head Cosmetics, and I had a wonderful visit with the
store manager. She turned out to be a
fiber artist and we bonded immediately.
When I got home I hit the ground running on my suspended
projects in Bloomington. Friday was the
opening reception at the Blueline Gallery for a subset of my Beauty and the Beast
costumes. They were paired with sketches
of fashion from the fifties, which was beautiful artwork from the grandmother
of the owners of Blueline. The exhibit
is called Fashion and Fantasy. It was
great fun to revisit with all of my costumes.
Distance does make the heart grow fonder, and I haven’t seen them since
November. I love the way that Jim
Andrews has curated the exhibit—there is a flow and a logic to the interactions
and a color story so it feels very natural.
The exhibit will be up until April 29th and there will be a
second reception on the first Friday in April.
Come visit if you’re in town.
While it was wonderful to visit with family and to make new
friends, there’s no place like home. I
found a bouquet of roses and a delightful fish dinner with wine when I got home,
and I relished sleeping in my own bed. Best of all, on Saturday morning a tart cherry
pie appeared! I’m going to have to
travel more often!
Until next week,
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