ABOUT BEADED PANELS

Formally, I trained in painting and my art practice moved through abstraction to figurative, landscape, back to abstraction and pattern painting, which lead me to an appreciation of textiles.  While still a practicing artist, I worked as a museum administrator exposing me to all forms of art across historic periods and world cultures. This allowed me to combine my skill sets as a practicing artist and utilizing my art history and aesthetics into my daily work.  I became increasingly interested in craft and craft practices incorporated into the daily routines of indigenous craftspeople, many of whom I had the honor of meeting. Utterly by dumb chance I heard of a “bead knitting” class at the local fiber store.  I had collected Victorian beaded handbags and never bothered to look at the construction. On a lark, I signed up for this knitting class not knowing, really, how to knit, though my mother tried to teach me.  I produced a one-color amulet bag. I was hooked and moved towards what I call “beaded panels”, thus reinvesting in some of my earlier ideas in patterns and abstraction in my paintings. I find that abstraction returns to art forms, when the world is nearly unbearable, as it is now.

I come from a long line of tailors and engineers.  My mother and both grandmothers all had fine craft skills. Growing up, I showed little interest in refining these skill sets, nor interest in engineering, or for making something “useful”. I know of no precedent for my beaded compositions. This new-found craft making allowed me to “knit on the go” and incorporate my making throughout the day, being inspired by indigenous craftspeople and their culture of craft and work.  I seem to have little interest in functional objects, which was part of my resistance in refining my skills in sewing and other crafts, though in my youth I had to learn these skill sets anyway. As in a painting, the very uselessness of my beaded panels defines its own function transcendentally, as wholly an aesthetic contemplation, if the viewer is willing to take the time to really look.

While I arrived at my craft form independently and many years into my making, I was introduced to the Kirdi Peoples beaded aprons -- finger weaving with beads. I revel in these little masterpieces and feel at company. As material and medium, beads have a universal appeal and transcend historical epochs and speak to an ethnographic past and present. I have found in sharing my works with indigenous peoples, from Native Americans, Chinese and African ethnic groups, my works are relatable. Time is understood, marked on each knot and stitch.  The “future” is seen/felt through the lens of the first bead knitted and the last bead knitted off 6-12 months after the beginning of the making.