THE BACK STORY


THE BACK STORY: In January 2016 I launched "Well Used, Well Loved" (WUWL)a long term community art project that explores age, beauty, impermanence and attachment through a hand woven dish towel and reflective writing/drawing. Eight households from England to Oregon "adopted" a hand woven linen towel to use however they wish. Every other week I sent a prompt for reflection to be recorded in a small journal that I provided. The response to my initial call to participate in WUWL was overwhelming. Over 50 households expressed interest in taking part in the project and I only had 8 towels.


So I created a secondary project that dovetailed with the first one. This second group of ultimately 38 households (Maine to Arizona) wrote and drew on kozo paper (a special Japanese paper) to record their response to my prompts. Thru a hands-on workshop at my studio I taught local folks from this group how to spin their kozo paper into thread using a Japanese technique called Shifu. I created a video tutorial for those who wanted to learn to spin their paper from afar.


Prompts to both groups were the same. For example Prompt #6 was: "The materials for this project are hand woven linen and Kozo paper. Both are created from plant fibers, known for their absorption qualities. Absorption can also been seen as dissolving boundaries. In that light what parallels or connection do you observe between your own ability to absorb, to soak up, to empathize? What connections do you perceive between your linen/paper and the action of union, of dissolving boundaries, connection? What value do these actions have today.


In September 2017 I began to collect the 8 towels, the kozo papers and the journals to wrap up the project. The journals, the used/loved towels and the completed four panel piece woven from the community threads combine to create an installation that honors and reflect the spirit of this project.

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

A long, slow gestation

   Spring is taking her sweet time here in Maine. It's May 10th, the heat is on in my studio, the
Dyed warp threads beamed and ready to thread
daffodils are slowly opening, the lilacs are just small beads of deep purple and the oaks leaves are a lacy light green.
   If you have been following my rumination over how to present the beautiful Shifu threads - you know that I've played with different ways to honor and share these threads spun from your heartfelt text.  I've listened to what others think, considered my own visions and done a number of samples.
  A few weeks ago I made the decision to weave a simple dark blue-black ground cloth on which to "float" these threads.
My sketch 
  I have designed a 4 panel piece. The two outside panels will be 72" by 24" and have Shifu threads stitched down by a supplementary warp, placed in horizontal lines—as though in a letter. The two center panels will be 72" by 40" with Shifu threads couched on to the surface. The design will be a hand gesture or mudra. The warps are dyed, one loom is ready to thread.  Of course all of this is still open to change -- that's how art seems to evolve.
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