Textile Society of America
Date of this Version
2020
Document Type
Article
Citation
Published in Hidden Stories/Human Lives: Proceedings of the Textile Society of America 17th Biennial Symposium, October 15-17, 2020. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsaconf/
doi: 10.32873/unl.dc.tsasp.0134
Abstract
Interwoven into my life at the loom are the stories of four women: a weaver, a painter, an embroiderer, and a fiber artist. Their histories have guided and pulled me forward in my own growth as an artist. Yet it is to their art that I feel a heartfelt, visceral, and almost spiritual resonance. I would like to present to the TSA conference in 2020 my research into the lives of Sumiko Deguchi (1883-1952), Helen Frankenthaler (1928- 2011), Adya van Rees-Dutilh (1876- 1959), and Pat Hickman (b.1935).
As an artist who has wound, tied, dyed, and woven silk into contemporary ikat work for over forty years, I have become fascinated by how the thread reveals a life and encodes memory. There are many questions I would con- sider as I research the lives and work of these four women:
- How does connection of fingertips on thread inform and guide the artist?
- How does touch inform the somatosensory cortex in the brain?
- How are the artist’s spirit and heart strings revealed in a viewer’s kines- thetic response to the luster and tactile presence of fiber?
- Whatdrawsustolookcloselyattheintelligencewithinatextileoracanvas?
Including images of the development of my own work, I hope to illustrate how their art has been an inspiration, a consolation, and an integral part of the fabric of my life’s work. Shouldering a vital textile tradition within a historic and vibrant contemporary community of fiber artists has been the thread I follow with my own voice.
Included in
Art and Materials Conservation Commons, Art Practice Commons, Fashion Design Commons, Fiber, Textile, and Weaving Arts Commons, Fine Arts Commons, Museum Studies Commons
Comments
Copyright © 2020 Polly Barton