Diane Savona and Closet Archaeology

Textiles have always been such a large part of domestic life, as it still is today. However, what has sadly faded away producing a rupture in the constant that was for generations such an intimate part of life, is that of the craft skills that supported all forms of domestic textiles. Centuries of creative and repairing skills have died out within a generation; many will probably never again be resurrected on the same scale as that of our ancestors.

In Closet Archaeology, the artist Diane Savona has created a form of vocabulary library of lost skills. However sad this may seem to one devoted to the textile crafts, perhaps more poignant still is the sense of lost lives and lost memories. Textiles, in many households, were literally often passed down over the generations. Therefore, woven, sewn, embroidered, crocheted, knitted and quilted forms often outlived their original owners. Many were offered as wedding or christening gifts from older to younger members of the same family. These could be offered and received in the form of an attractive gift, a keepsake, or as a memory parcel if you will. So many pieces of textile work have generational value and are imbued with the lifeblood of individuals that are no longer here. It is sad, as Savona herself reflects, how much of our individual family and community history and culture has been casually jettisoned by a couple of recent generations, including our own who seem ambivalent of the cares of any future generation that might have wished for these keepsakes and memory parcels to have continued.

It is with a sense of awe that this exhibition has been put together. The cavalier means by which we dismiss all previous generations apart from our own, holds no sway here. Many of the textiles featured in Closet Archaeology are actually not particularly ancient and not that far removed from our own. However, perhaps that is one of the points that Savona is trying to make. Domestic textile work that she features is sometimes only one or two generations removed from ourselves. However, they might as well be a hundred or more generations away. The emphasis on detail, patience and pride that can be seen quite evidently in so many examples of domestic work, seem a world away from our own lives. Many today have no sympathy, empathy or understanding towards the life of past generations. Their wide-ranging and significant skills base is often dismissed as irrelevant. Much of the history of domestic craft skilled work has already been lost and connections between generations of family have been irrevocably severed by car boot and garage sales.

Although this exhibition should be seen as a form of celebration of generational textile craft skills of countless and mostly nameless women, it is tinged with sadness. It cannot be coincidental that there is an element of the forgotten and the neglected in Savona's work. The exhibition at times seems to take on the mantle of a neglected corner of a museum, or perhaps more fittingly, a long forgotten domestic linen cupboard. Previously precious family items, steeped in memories, carefully packed away, but now forgotten and misplaced.

The history of our species is made up of so many variations of creative and destructive behaviour. All these elements of our group personality become layers set one over the other, building up a fossilized record of our species achievements along with its failures. Treating domestic textiles in the same way is an intriguing concept. Savona has literally unpicked various three-dimensional garments, often of a celebratory nature such as christening gowns, and rearranged them within two-dimensions. By flattening these garments, they have lost their original shape and purpose and have become, in some respects, fossilized memories, or partial impressions of previous generations. It is perhaps similar to us viewing a flat compressed fossilized creature and trying to imagine the reanimation of that specific life. How and where would the creature inhabit and fill the space in its forgotten world.

For me, one of the most intriguing aspects of Savona's exhibition, and there are so many elements that make up the whole, is that of the last illustration shown in this article. It is a rendition of a form of geological layering of clothing. It seems somehow humbling to view generations of humans as each being a thin layer of garment. It is also an important point for us all to remember, that although we may seem in our present generation, to be sitting proudly above all the previous layers of humanity, we are in fact only one transitional layer. To future generations we are one small coloured line in the continuing strata of humanity.

Diane Savona's excellent and intriguing exhibition can be viewed at the Hermitage Museum in Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey. Closet Archaeology continues until September 26 2010. I can only hope that by viewing this exhibition, some individuals may well change their views concerning the importance of generational textiles and perhaps treasure, in some small way, family pieces that store the life, ambitions and skills of our predecessors.

A link to Savona's official website, along with another link showing more fascinating and intriguing images of the Closet Archaeology exhibition can be seen below in the Reference links section.

All images of the exhibition were kindly provided by the artist.

Reference links:
Diane Savona website
Closet Archaeology

The Textile Art of Linda McCurry - Colour, Texture and Pattern

Illustration: Linda McCurry. Tork.

By Linda McCurry's own estimation, she has been involved in textiles ever since she was able to reach the foot pedal of a sewing machine, and it shows. Here is a lifetimes experience collected from a number of professional guises in the worlds of fashion, pattern prints, and ultimately textile art.

McCurry has brought all the elements of her career into the textile artwork she now produces. There is much going on in the pieces that I have chosen to show in this article. Included are copious amounts of dynamic and energising compositional work, tied together with the experience of constructional tailoring, along with a very knowledgeable and balanced approach to surface pattern and mark-making.

Illustration: Linda McCurry. Tork, Bridge to Hope.

It is the combination of McCurry's experience in the tailoring and pattern making areas of the textile world, which seems to have added so much to the depth and experience of these compositions. There is a timeless, almost primal quality to the overall appearance of the compositions, which inevitably leads you to question whether the work is inspired by the natural world around us, the internal world of our own thoughts, or indeed an element of both. Her own dyed and textured fabrics add so much to the overall nature of her work and her manipulation of the tailoring of colour, pattern and texture is very finely tuned.

There seems to be a large and persistent reference, at least in colour, pattern and structure, to the early human world. One that was full of myth and meaning, coloured by texture and gesture. These compositions seem to show us an element of a world that though seemingly forgotten in the largely urban structure of the twenty first century, is still only just out of reach, just beyond the senses of most of us.

Illustration: Linda McCurry. Tork, Bridge to Hope (detail).

The vertical structure of the main composition signifies the powerful appearance of construction, as if each creative piece was a stand alone three-dimensional sculpture. This dominance of the vertical, shown in both layering and stitching could appear overpowering and even severe in some cases. However, the clever use of a number of small diagonal and horizontal aspects of the composition, throws the vertical off-balance allowing the eye to roam over the whole composition instead of being fixated with the vertical. The ploy works and is very effective in calming down the composition to that of an element of contemplation and introspection.

Illustration: Linda McCurry. Veeds.

It is notoriously difficult to make textile compositions work and work well. Both balance and optical interest have to be observed, with the subject being engaging enough in colour, texture and pattern. Enough indeed to make the piece memorable in a world of so much instant gratification and visual overload. That McCurry succeeds and succeeds well is a testament to her incomparable judgement and skill.

Linda McCurry has exhibited her work extensively across the US. She also holds classes in both colour theory as regards quilting and a number of dye classes. These can all be found, along with many other examples of her work, on her comprehensive website, which can be found below in the reference links section.

Illustration: Linda McCurry. Water Haiku.

All images were used with the kind permission of the artist.

Reference links:

Linda McCurry website

The Abstract Finesse of Textile Artist Marion Coleman

Illustration: Marion Coleman. Untitled, 2007.

These four abstract textile art pieces by Marion Coleman, are all linked through a series of commonalities, colour, texture, and pattern. However, probably the most obvious and noticeable link is that of her use of patterned textiles. In these particular pieces, she uses a mixture of locally American sourced textiles and perhaps more importantly, a generous supply of African sourced textiles. It is the use of the decorative and mark-making capabilities of these specific African cotton fabrics that allow the abstract compositions to be so successful.

The power of decoration within an abstract setting could be classed as counter to the ideas of abstraction itself, but in reality, these repeated decorative patterns become all the more powerful because of their relationship with, and their dependence on each other. The sense of balance between the differing qualities of the fabrics, whether that be through size, texture, colour, or tone, are all placed within the composition to both balance and complement.

Illustration: Marion Coleman. When Leaves Do Fall, 2007.

Coleman is an expert in this field and her compositions appear effortless, which is to deny the difficult and often complex task of the distribution of fabrics, many of which can often fight and clash with each other. Abstract quilting can, in many respects, be one of the hardest forms of quilting in which to achieve a satisfactory result. There are few rules or frameworks to work within and compositions are largely left to the skill of the artist.

The more you study these abstract Coleman pieces, the more you can understand about the balances, compromises and relationships that she has forged with both fabric, colour and decoration. The result she has achieved appears effortless, which is as it should be. However, the result cannot disguise the intrinsic creativity and inbuilt compositional quality of the artist.

 Illustration: Marion Coleman. Serengeti 2, 2005.

Coleman's work forges a link between textiles and fine art painting. It is often hard for textile artists to achieve any standing outside their immediate medium. However, through these pieces and particularly that of her more immediate and relevant textile work concerning the profound social and cultural changes within her own African American community, she has been able to tap into an element of relevance and significance that sometimes only fine art can achieve. That she has been able to achieve this through textiles is an achievement in itself.

Marion Coleman has exhibited her work extensively across the US and into Europe. Her work has also been featured in a number of publications and she has a number of awards to her name. She has a comprehensive website which can be found here, where much more of her work can be seen other than the abstract pieces I have featured. Also of interest is the fact that she has a regularly updated blog By a Thread, which can be viewed here.

Illustration: Marion Coleman. Crimson In The Mist, 2005.

All images are shown with the kind permission of the artist.

Reference links:

Marion Coleman website

Marion Coleman blog

Tricia Coulson and the Human Journey

Illustration: Tricia Coulson. Artifacts 3.

There is an obvious early historical element to the textile work of Tricia Coulson, though perhaps it would be better to say that her work is pre-historical and taps into some of the most fundamental of the roots of the human species, the early ancestral elements that went to make up who we are today, the core of our being rather than the ephemeral and somehow unreliable coating that the twenty first century at least appears to give us.

Illustration: Tricia Coulson. Artifacts 4.

It is the strands within our human journey that seem to make up such an important part of Coulson's work. Two strands in particular seem to stand out in the pieces shown in this article, that of both visible art and of the written word. It could be said that these two elements are possibly the two strands that have helped us the most in moulding our exceptional ability to be both creative and perhaps more importantly, to understand that creative element inside all of us.

Illustration: Tricia Coulson. Artifacts 1.

Although the written word followed on much later than the medium of art, the early lettering on these art pieces could be said to be representational of the spoken as well as the written word. This would then take the images that Coulson has conjured up, back to the earliest days of human myth and legend, when our culture was young, fluid and full of stories and images of wonder concerning the world we saw and experienced around us.

Illustration: Tricia Coulson. Artifacts 2.

The way Coulson produces her work and judges the compositional components that make up each piece is interesting, as it seems to tie in with the timeless quality of her compositions. She removes herself from the measured timeframe of our everyday life today and creates her own space and rhythm in which to work. This conscious removal from the structure of time and limited space opens up a whole world of possibilities and allows her to experience a genuine contact with the larger world that our ancestors knew, rather than the very narrow one that we inhabit today which is full of the power of the rigid framework of time and space that we have created for ourselves as both a useful guide, but which also serves as a cage with a host of inevitable limitations. By opening up this other world that our early ancestors knew intimately, Coulson shows us what we could and have been, rather than what we are. It gives us hope for change, but it is also tinged with the sadness of what we have inevitably lost, probably forever.

Illustration: Tricia Coulson. Pictograph.

Tricia Coulson is a textile artist with a genuine love of her medium, but also she is that rare artist who is aware of the fluid and timeless quality that can sometimes be achieved within the realms of creativity. She works full time creatively and exhibits her work across the US.

Coulson has a website showing her work and statements about her approach to that work. The website can be found here.

All images are used with the kind permission of the artist.

Reference links:

Tricia Coulson website

The Textile Artwork of Altoon Sultan

Illustration: Altoon Sultan. Turquoise Circles.

Textile art can take many forms and use many mediums. In recent years a number of craft processes not usually associated with textile art have been incorporated by some of the more enterprising and non-judgemental artists. Some of the skills that have been incorporated into textile art include many that were considered to be the lesser craft skills, most of which were on a strictly amateur basis and have rarely if ever seen any professional aspect to their medium. These include such staples of the amateur world as crochet, macrame, hooked and rag rugging, to name only a few.

Illustration: Altoon Sultan. Boxed Circles.

Hooked rugs have always been seen as belonging to a world of instant necessity and practical need. The skill of hooked rugging was never considered part of any Arts & Crafts revival or even part of a middle class accomplishment package that was expected from every woman before and after marriage. These art and craft packages would usually include such skills as drawing, needlework and weaving, but could include some of the more unusual craft skills such as metalwork and ceramics. Rug making itself has a very high standard of achievement and status. When it was strictly in the field of weave, embroidery or even print it could and was often considered to be an art form in itself. However, rag and hooked rugs were another matter entirely and were rarely if ever mentioned in the same format and were not seen as a skill or part of any other medium. These rugs were strictly the property of some of the lowest and most poorly paid members of society. The skill has therefore been tarnished with an image of low social status and inapproachability.

Illustration: Altoon Sultan. Tiles.

Altoon Sultan is a Vermont based fine artist who sees no stigma or prejudice in the skill of hooked rug making and has incorporated it effortlessly into her fine art work as a process of that art rather than as a minor support skill. She has a subtle eye for both texture and colour variation, as can be seen in the images shown in this article, all of which are the work of Sultan. For the artist it is not just a matter of producing a pattern out of the hooking technique, there is also the much subtler use of the direction that the loops take within the composition. Some compositions switch the direction with a change of colour or texture, while others use the change of loop direction in order to add a subtle pattern for the eye to follow.

Illustration: Altoon Sultan. Ovals.

Whereas the traditional hooked rug technique used scraps of fabric that could not be utilised for any other domestic use, and therefore were limited as to the range of the creative process, Sultan does not have this problem. Her fabrics can be individually and subtly dyed to produce a close range of colour shades and tones making the work appear both coordinated and connected. Each piece or ruglet, is an individual and unique process, from initial sketch and composition, through to the dyeing and hand picking of fabric strips, to the actual making.

These pieces are not rugs and cannot be placed on the floor. They are art pieces for the wall only. This is not to say that Sultan finds that there is something embarrassing about the medium or the skill involved in hooked rug making. It says much more about her being able to see the medium outside its narrow confines, often narrowed by outside elements rather than within the medium.

By highlighting the work of Altoon Sultan, it shows that no process within the textile world should be considered lower and less significant than another. All are processes that were learnt and handed down across generations and all have value. If we start to rationalise and grade the differing skills and techniques that are part of the large and varied world of art and craft textiles then we are also guilty of rationalising and grading the generations of people who, usually through necessity produced and honed those skills in the first place.

Illustration: Altoon Sultan. Blue Circle, Red Triangle.

Altoon Sultan has an interesting and comprehensive blog where her thought processes and methods of work can be seen in much greater detail than I have shown here. Her blog Studio and Garden can be found here.

The images were used with the kind permission of the artist.

Reference links:
Altoon Sultan blog

The Creative Artwork of Cynthia Corbin

Illustration: Cynthia Corbin. Permeable, 2008.

It is sometimes difficult to categorise Cynthia Corbin's work as it is so much more than the title of quilting or even textile art can do justice to. The techniques used in order to produce the resulting textural and painterly aspect of her work could very well be seen as on a literal par with some of the best efforts of fine art abstract painting.

The fact that Corbin does indeed work with fabrics and stitching and not oils, acrylics or pastels is all the more remarkable as all the fabrics used are individually painted with dyes, rather than bought or dyed en masse. This attention to detail, taking each separate fabric as a project in its own right, allows Corbin to build up a unique library of artistic moments which gives her a perspective towards quilting that is much deeper, more personal and certainly more creative than most.

 Illustration: Cynthia Corbin. Blocked, 2008.

It is the mark making techniques and textures that have added a completely new level of richness and singular creativity to her work. These elements, which often seem more reminiscent to that of fine art printing or pen and ink drawing, create a surface that can be explored in its own right. That Corbin could easily be satisfied with that singular result is obviously not part of her creative makeup as she then applies the technique of building up multi-layers that take their strength from the traditions of quilting. However, she also challenges the formulas and preconceptions of that tradition, asking us to see beyond the limits of the craft and accept in full the compositional use of a whole series of techniques of surface and much deeper textural formulas that take this work well beyond both quilting and textile art.

The work that Corbin produces is worth seeing purely for its unique and therefore personally artistic and creative approach, but it also has an elemental sense that takes us out of ourselves and allows us to explore the fundamental use of colour and texture on an emotional level, rather than an intellectual.

Illustration: Cynthia Corbin. Removed, 2008.

Cynthia Corbin teaches various classes and workshops, is a lecturer and has exhibited her work widely both inside and outside the US. She has a full calendar until at least 2011 and it seems there is very little that Corbin has not achieved or is willing to achieve within her discipline. There is also a comprehensive website where you can see much more of Corbin's work and includes more information about her lectures, classes, workshops and exhibitions. The website can be found here.

All images were used with the kind permission of the artist.

Illustration: Cynthia Corbin. Storm Door, 2008.

Reference links:
Cynthia Corbin Website

Nelda Warkentin and the Balance and Rhythm of Nature

Illustration: Nelda Warkentin. Summer Light.

Nelda Warkentin's textile artwork can be said to have at its root, the acute observation of nature. This observation however, is not limited to the scientific and objective analysis of nature, but has much more to do with recognising the balance, symmetry and rhythm that is a fundamental part of the natural world.

Warkentin lives and works in Alaska where you can imagine that nature is writ large, but she also travels extensively and is able to appreciate the natural world in its many guises, which is then incorporated into her work. She is naturally aware of interesting elements of line, pattern and colour from a blade of grass to the surface texture of an ocean.

 Illustration: Nelda Warkentin. Palms Swaying, Whales Breaching.

Warkentin's style can be seen on a number of levels. Her appreciation of the natural world is obvious and can be immediately seen throughout most of her work. However, underlying this appreciation lie a number of other observations, and they have much more to do with the interaction of all living elements on the planet including the human one. The world we have created seems at first glance to be artificial and bears little resemblance to that of the natural world, but we are all part of the complex procedure that is the make up of all flora and fauna of the planet. Warkentin builds up her work in layers, gaining her inspiration from traditional quilt work. She uses the layering as a metaphor for the complex pattern that is the sum of each individual creature, whether that be a palm frond, a flying bird, or indeed the multi-levelled personality of a human. However, it also draws attention to the layers that can be seen within groups of individuals such as a flock of birds, a shoal of fish or a human community, where individuals are part of a larger whole.

Illustration: Nelda Warkentin. Early Spring, East Hill.

While the layering strategy is somewhat subtle and perhaps not immediately noticeable to the naked eye, what is more immediate about Warkentin's work is the obvious juxtaposition of the curve and the straight line. This is another analogy that she draws between the natural and hand produced world represented by the curve, and the contrasting geometrically imposed straight line of the human world of streets and buildings that is so much a part of who we are.

Above all, there is an element in the work of Warkentin that our natural sense of rhythm and balanced symmetry appreciates. Her work is made up of smaller parts, each being unique, but still similar enough to the other parts surrounding it to give us a well-balanced and harmonious final work. It is this feeling of harmony that allows us to fully appreciate the complex rhythm and pattern of nature.

Illustration: Nelda Warkentin. Glacier Rendevous 2.

Nelda Warkentin's work can be regularly seen across the US as well as worldwide from Japan to South Africa. She has a comprehensive website where more examples of her work can be seen and information about her life as an artist. Her website can be found here.

All images were used with the kind permission of the artist.

Illustration: Nelda Warkentin. Spring Swing.

Reference links:

Nelda Warkentin website

Catherine Kleeman - A Multi-Layered Balancing Act

Illustration: Catherine Kleeman. Identity Crisis, 2009.

Illustration: Catherine Kleeman. Identity Crisis (detail), 2009.

Catherine Kleeman is a textile artist that uses the idea of layers as a central theme to her work. It would be more exact to say perhaps that Kleemen builds up whole systems of multi-layers and even layers within layers, producing work that has a wealth of detail and exactness to it that corresponds to hours of labour.

The work is both colourful and vibrant, but what makes it especially so is the fact that she is able to dye her own fabrics to her own specifications. However, the relatively simple process of dying fabric for her own needs is not enough for this multi-layered artist. Kleeman also hand paints, stamps, silk screens and batiks the fabrics as well as using various mark making techniques which make her fabrics well and truly her own.

 Illustration: Catherine Kleeman. Family Reunion, 2008.

Illustration: Catherine Kleeman. Family Reunion (detail), 2008.

It is the mark making that perhaps gives us a hint that there is more to Kleemans work than just textile art, though that would be adequate for most. The mark making has turned her textile art into a form of fine art painting. From a distance, the textile pieces look truly to be in the realm of abstract fine art painting. It is only on closer inspection that the numerous individual fabrics and threads become visible. Mark making is one of the basic tools of an artist and Kleeman uses it well to express herself within her chosen medium.

Layering is never an easy option in any creative medium, as juxtapositions of differing colour tones and textures are notoriously difficult to blend and mould as one. In the pieces shown in this article, all produced within the last two years, Kleeman has used two separate levels of layering, the much more subtle tones of the background composition and the much more strident abstract shapes of the foreground layers. These two systems of layers are then, in their turn, blended together so that the composition does not allow one ground to dominate another, but also without the background and foreground becoming indistinguishable. This is not an easy task to perform.

Illustration: Catherine Kleeman. Hidden Agendas, 2008.

Illustration: Catherine Kleeman. Hidden Agendas (detail), 2008.

Every aspect of Kleemans work is finely balanced. Her system of multi-layering has to take into account the many elements that go into each piece. From the overall importance of the composition, to being acutely aware of both colour tone and texture and the vital role they play in bringing together the piece. However, on top of this she also has to be aware of the medium that she is working in, and has to be sympathetic towards the differing qualities that textile art can bring to a piece. Having said that she also has to tie together elements within that textile medium such as quilting and collage, and to balance their contribution.

I believe that she fully succeeds in her finely tuned balancing act and that her work expresses a rare fine art painting quality to the medium of textile art while still maintaining the essence of textiles, which is a very difficult and complicated process to achieve.

Illustration: Catherine Kleeman. Window Paint, 2008.

Illustration: Catherine Kleeman. Window Paint (detail), 2008.

Catherine Kleeman has her own comprehensive website where many more examples of her work can be seen. The website can be found here. She also has a blog called Fiberstudio where you can keep updated as to the latest work produced and her working methods, the site can be found here. 

Kleeman has been exhibiting regularly across the USA since the mid-1990s. She has a number of future exhibitions booked for the rest of this year and into 2010. To go along and see her work, check for dates and venues all of which can be found on her website.

All images were used with the kind permission of the artist.

Illustration: Catherine Kleeman. Blue Moon, 2008.

Illustration: Catherine Kleeman. Blue Moon (detail), 2008.

Reference links:

Catherine Kleeman website

Fiberstudio blog