In Issue 10 of Selvedge magazine - an amazing resource of fibre related arts of all kinds - there is a great article about an artist who uses weaving as her medium. Sue Lawty weaves intricate panels of depth, texture and immense colour which reflect “wild raw primal land”.
Sue’s work has struck a cord with me:: She weaves as if she paints, massing small blocks of weave on top of other blocks, mimicking rock and stone patterns. Her sketches reflect the methodical intricacies of varying shapes and rythms. Sue thinks of herself as a Tapestry Weaver - and the scale of her weaving, although large, reflects the closeness of tapestry.

Weaving has been something that has fascinated me for a long time: My aunt was a very well respected weaver in the US, and I had a small loom as a child. There’s something base about the simple movement of thread amongst thread to create fibre. It goes beyond knitting and sewing, but becomes full of life and depth. I admire the patience and physicality of weaving. There are so many textures and dimensions available to the weaver. So from one extreme to the other - Markow and Norris woven glass. An american studio weaving, literally, glass threads to create 3D objects. I’m really fascinated by the two opposites in approach these artists take to their craft - diversity, convergence and exploration. Something we should all aim for.

I love it when a craft moves into art, and becomes something more.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 28th, 2006 at 2:43 pm and is filed under exhibitions+design+extreme. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.