The Woven Work of Stanley Bulbach

Illustration: Stanley Bulbach. 'Agate Stream'.

It is always interesting to see how different creative individuals approach their work and their medium, but it is often just as interesting to see where these individuals originated, where they gained their core influences, and what sent them along their unique creative path. Many are not always walking along the clear-cut path you would imagine.

The artist Stanley Bulbach has a BA in History of Religion and an MA and PhD in Near Eastern Studies. Although these qualifications do not automatically suggest that a career in the creative arts is imminent, it also doesn't necessarily disallow it. There are so many avenues and pathways towards a truly creative life, how you get onto that path can be just as interesting as the path that you follow as an individual. 

Illustration: Stanley Bulbach. 'Agate Stream' detail.

It is often assumed that the creative arts are reserved for academic underachievers, those who couldn't make it in the academic world. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Since starting The Textile Blog, I have come across a range of individuals who have taken up creative arts careers from a diverse background of degrees, diplomas, and lifetime work that have seemingly little in common with the creative art world, but then of course all paths are linked, often on a much subtler level than many can see.

Whatever you do in life is part of your ultimate path. If you decide to be a car mechanic, and then thirty years later shift focus into 3D sculpture, then that is your path. If you work in admin for forty years and then decide to take up quilting, then that too is your path. If, like Stanley you take the road from seeming academia, research, and then the development of a fascination with North African carpet weaving through a trip through the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, then that is another path towards the creative arts.

Illustration: Stanley Bulbach. 'Bridges'.

Stanley has a deep knowledge, understanding, and sympathy for the history and traditions of carpet weaving across the Islamic world, particularly those traditions that are found in North Africa. He has an exhaustive knowledge of traditional weaving found across North Africa. However, with Stanley it isn't a matter of imbuing his carpets just with a flavour of North Africa. These are not carpets that focus on reproducing the traditions of a cultural heritage half a world away from his New York City base. These are not therefore merely extensions of the magic and passion of North Africa, though they are inevitably imbued with it, they also importantly contain part of the personality and perspective of the artist.

Stanley may well call his woven pieces 'carpets' and they are definitely within the general genre of that medium, but they are much more than the name 'carpet' could suggest, and shouldn't necessarily be treated as practical domestic accessories. These are pieces of personal artwork, artwork that could and should equally be expected to have a place reserved for them on a wall, rather than a floor. It would probably be best to describe them as somewhere between a woven tapestry and a woven fine art carpet. The description doesn't really do Stanley's work full justice, but it does give some indication of where his artwork should be.

Illustration: Stanley Bulbach. 'Gotham'.

However, perhaps more important than artistic freedom and the focus on individual perspective that automatically comes with the creative arts, Stanley is also aware of the unique symbolism that is encased in the history and continuity of woven carpet-making as well as the usage of the carpet. To many in the world it is still a vital ingredient of domesticity, and through that, is intimately connected to human life. Woven carpets have been used for all of the major celebrations of human life from birth, through marriage, to death. Carpets can be seating, bedding, used for birthing or for shrouds for the dead. They can be given as gifts, or kept as heirlooms within families as remembrances of generations past and those yet to come. Carpets are also significant partners in prayer; many of Stanley's woven pieces derive at least an element of their origin from the widespread use of prayer rugs that are seen across the Islamic world. 

Weaving itself has always been used as a wide-ranging symbol, particularly when used in the context of the ideals symbolised through the singular weakness of isolated threads compared to the strength achieved by those isolated threads when woven into a fabric. When expanded into weaving as an art form, an artistic statement even, it can be seen that weaving could easily be used as a metaphor for the contemporary world we live in today. 

Illustration: Stanley Bulbach, the artist.

Through our expression of endless and unique diversity as individuals, we can with effort, weave ourselves into the fabric that is humanity. By weaving together the diverse strengths of each of us, we create a fabric that cannot easily be ripped apart. In this respect, Stanley sees his work as a weaver, and with his local community work looking for solutions to the problems of such a large and diverse population as New York City, the two very much become the same thing. Whether you are weaving with yarn or you are weaving with people, a harmonious and interestingly diverse outcome is always hoped for.

Stanley himself weaves a complex subject of research, practical knowledge, and theory that is far too complex to touch on much in this short article, more can be seen and read at Stanley's website, a link to which is given below. However, I hope this has been a good introduction to the work of Stanley Bulbach, and if you are in the New York City area, Stanley's work can presently be seen at the Jason McCoy Gallery.

Stanley Bulbach website

Please be aware that all photos of artwork illustrating this article were kindly supplied by the artist and are therefore copyrighted to him.

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