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Volunteers Make It Happen: A Conversation with Jan Austin
By Ronda Karliukson
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…. [Jan] "signed up for a weaving class when I was a student at Massachusetts College of Art, in 1972…. At that point I was really into the idea of making things; I had a fantasy of living in a completely handmade home. After the first day I went out to Earth Guild… and bought a small Toika loom with the $200 I had saved from my summer job.”…
…what inspires Jan today?… “I always get very excited by a new empty warp; it has the potential to become anything!... My inspiration comes from abstract shapes and marks that I discover in my other artwork, drawings and painting.... first I discover the images, then I have to discover how to translate them into tapestry….
“The new tapestries both come from a drawing, which is a detail from an old painting I did about 27 years ago, of my messy studio table…. “Chaotic Fragments: Part 1” is the first in a series of smaller tapestries that are derived from “Chaos,” in which parts . . .are cut up and reassembled with more drawing added.”
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below: Janet Austin, “Chaos,” 20”x24”; 2007
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below: Janet Austin, “Chaotic Fragments: Part 1,” 10”x10”; 2008
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below: Janet Austin; photo by Kim Austin
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Susan Warner Keene: ATB7 Juror Profile
By Linda Rees
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…. Besides her sustained production of exhibition work and commissions, [Toronto, Ontario, fiber artist Susan Warner Keene] has participated in the promotion of her field….
Keene's talent is in working within the physical parameters of papermaking... Paper is intended as a stable support that receives imprinted marks or information. For Susan the encoding is built into the work as a result of such mundane concerns as shrinkage, translucency and surface texture. There is a great deal of effort that the works undergo in order that they appear effortlessly as part of a natural world to her devising. (from the Prime Gallery statement about Mimesis)….
Susan Warner Keene's comments about her process of selecting ATB7 artists:
In keeping with the spirit of a biennial, it was my decision to include a broad representation of approaches to tapestry, rather than to focus more narrowly. As the sole juror, I made a point of looking beyond matters of personal taste and interest to the intent and achievement of the work itself. Within the size limitations of a traveling show, I attempted to select a group of works that would be engaging for audiences new to this medium as well as for the connoisseur, and I believe that all of them contribute something meaningful, intriguing, thought-provoking, amusing, or amazing to a consideration of the tapestry form.
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below: below: Susan Warner Keene, “Rebus #1,” 28” diameter x 1.5” deep; 2007.
Handmade paper (abaca fibre), pigment.
Source text: "Round as yet round my dreams keep revolving,"
the last lines composed by the 17th-century Japanese poet Basho.
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Student Award Winner: Erica Diazoni
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The ATA Board has selected Erica Diazoni of Santa Clara, California to be the 2008 Student Award Winner. Erica… is currently studying textiles as art at San Jose State University. Her final paper in her art history class was to compare an item from her textbook with another art piece in the same medium. She chose one of the Unicorn tapestries… the American Tapestry Biennial 6 was at the San Jose Museum a t the time… She selected Tricia Goldberg’s tapestry “Stamps” as the comparison tapestry…
On one of several return visits to the… Museum, Erica met… Tricia Goldberg. This encounter lead to… sharing her final paper with Tricia and… taking a workshop with Tricia. Erica… submitted one of her first pieces… “The Invisible Essential” to the LAND exhibit in Australia.
Her enthusiasm for the medium persuaded the board to give her the award… a prize of $250 and a years’ student membership in ATA. We look forward to seeing how she develops as a tapestry weaver.
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Kudos
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Karen Crislip’s Tropical Winter - Fractures was awarded Juror's Choice: Best of Show at the Handweavers’ Guild of Boulder (Colorado) Annual Show and Sale Showcase exhibit in December.
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below: Karen Crislip, “Tropical Winter – Fractures,” 46” x 60".
Forty tapestries were woven separately then assembled
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