Tapestry thinking (3): follow the thread…
First (proper) tapestry in progress…making and thinking…
One of the greatest things about being an artist is also one of the hardest things: there is no rulebook.
There are traditions and histories of making and thinking, sure. But there is no ONE, PROPER way of doing things. As an artist, you might selectively use, adapt, evaluate, flow around, turn over, re-manipulate or challenge methods, mediums, strategies or conventions (or more) in ways that suit you accordingly; and fit your own intentions and practice.
You have to feel your way, listen to your brain AND gut, build the plane as you fly it.
Make mistakes. Learn.
I am LOVING the process of learning tapestry…but one thing that I find myself resisting in relation to the medium is the innate WHOLENESS of it. Although it is (obviously) created from multiple threads, the final work provides this perception of a continuous surface, one whole piece.
In my practice, I have been focused on exploring contrasts between wholeness and fragmentation, and for that there needs to be some kind of manifestation of NOT-wholeness, or discontinuity; either in surface, pattern, colour or form. This feels fundamental to how I think, and to being able to articulate my ideas. Creating this discontinuity can be done in so many different ways…and now I find myself wanting to figure out how this could be possible, and how it could work for my work, through tapestry.
So… while I have been learning my tapestry techniques, I have been turning them over and over again in my head as I move through them, considering how they might be applied to create this fragmentation and discontinuity.
How can I mess with this fundamental wholeness?
This week I finished my first (proper) little tapestry (huzzah!) and I could easily just continue to make straight tapestry versions of my designs - they translate pretty well as they are. It has been really helpful to make this little one as part of my explorations - the process provided that next concrete step in learning and has allowed me to continue to develop my tapestry thinking within the context of my own forms and patterns.
But while I have been making this, my mind was still chewing around the idea of a discontinuity in tapestry, and pondering...
And then….
In the (large, some might even say excessive) pile of books sitting on my desk/dining room table is the book Textiles x Art (by Beck Jobson, the studio manager at ATW, and Ramona Barry) - one morning this week, I just randomly (or not…?) pulled it out and started flipping through it...
And BAM. I see the work of artist Jen P Harris and just feel this instant sense of GETTING IT. They have been there and mapped some of this territory for me.
This feeling of instant recognition is similar to falling in love at first sight (although similarly, the lightning strike needs to be followed up with WORK if there is going to be any lasting relationship) - when you see something that JUST MAKES SENSE to you.
Or that solves (or partially) solves a problem you have been struggling with.
I had some similar previous lightning strike/turning point moments on my journey to making textiles, in the form of getting my data projector and on darning that damn cushion cover.
These moments feel like something fitting into place, and there is a real, almost physical jolt. It would be the same, I suppose, when someone sees an artwork and wants to buy it. Just that intense feeling of wanting to EAT something, gobble it all up. Yum yum yum.
In this case, I don’t want to own it, or eat it…I want to MAKE it.
There is a sense that there is some kind of key here that opens multiple threads in my work and brings them together. Potentially…
This is not a pre-packaged end-point or easy fix - it is only a starting point.
A feeling. A taste of something. A direction.
It will require experimentation to sift through and process this feeling, this recognition of something, to see what actually works for ME.
Just seeing how another artist does it can help me create my own map, but it is not the solution.
But it IS a start.
(Note: I trialled a tiny sample of open warp in my colour strip to see if this might work, and I’m not sure that it is my answer…but I do know that I’m onto something in terms of discontinuity and bringing together different elements of both tapestry and stitching OR painting…watch this space…)
