Newsletter 1
Welcome to my website!
I find life always a surprise. Like this morning, I found a wooly worm crossing the path in front of me, black, with lovely chestnut hues about 2” long. It turns out it will become a Giant Leopard Moth, in the family of Erebidae, native to North America and as far away as Columbia. The moth has blue tear drop spots on the back of its head and black outlined circles dotted throughout its body on a white field. Hmm, I may utilize that pattern in the next beaded composition, which I am drawing out now. A deep iris blue will be part of my palette. I will tuck this away for tomorrow.
Life is surprising to me, but a website has been a conundrum for me. I have been creative my entire life, but useless in creating things with utility and not the least bit interested in the business of art. Not only do my eyes glaze over, but my body becomes numb. I am interested in ideas and aesthetics, strictly. Sure, I spent my adult life directing and completing projects in my day job and working steadily in the studio at night and exhibiting yearly to boot, but I just couldn’t muster the energy to organize web pages and the like. The prospect seems so static, my work is slow, the web is fast, and I operate as a verb.
All that said, without really trying, I found myself in the most unlikely places sharing my art and that of my fellow fiber arts friends. For instance, as the work above entitled “Chance Encounters Madrid, Bloomington, Beijing”, I was going to Madrid and at that time Lala DeDios was the president of the European Textile Network. I had a spare weekend, and I contacted her and asked if she could show me around and introduce me to fellow fiber artists. The next thing I received was an announcement that I was giving a lecture on North American Fiber Artists. The notice was 10 days before I was arriving in Madrid! I called upon Surface Design Association artists and about 60 people sent me their work! The lecture hall was filled with 50 or more people,fiber artists and enthusiasts and as far away as Chile and Argentina, who were in Madrid to discuss a mutual exhibition. Several other fiber artists shared their works and Lala did a presentation too. I had quite an exposure and education!
In Beijing I encountered the work of Lin Lecheng and was introduced to him. Ad hoc, I managed to give the same “lecture” to fiber art students and faculty at the Tsinghua University fiber department. I was to return to teach a class, but COVID broke out, I was busy with my day job and the Chinese government dissuaded further emails from the West, and our communications fell off the radar. Life is short.
In the work above, the black, red and gold banding along the bottom is a red-winged black bird I found precariously perched on an interstate highway sign a long distance from the next cattail where one should perch. I could identify with that bird, it was me. This work was knitted during the span of my Spain and China travels with many interruptions and intervals. Life is ever a surprise and requires us to be open to change, resilience, patience and tolerance.
Peace be with you.
Anita
