Carefully Crafted

In an electric fast paced bustling world, I seek solace in anything hand crafted with love. I find these objects spark imagination and don’t over stimulate my already overstimulated mind. I especially find delight in hand spun fabrics, woven together on handlooms. On textiles I love traditional patterns with natural dyes developed over centuries by cultural traditions. Preserving these traditions from becoming extinct due to globalization is as important to me as buying organically grown food. So that is why I have been supporting the work of Maiwa Handprints since I discovered their existence on Granville Island years ago.

a handloom in a small village, Kerala, India.

Charlotte Kwon, the heart and soul that founded Maiwa and the Maiwa Foundation has been a part of the resurrection, preservation, and development of handcrafts from artisans across the globe. Touching base with Charlotte ensured my trip to India two years ago was filled with magic, from checking out natural textiles being dyed by hand with indigo and eucalyptus, watching hand looms in action, to spending a day at a Toda Hilltribe settlement in the mountains of Tamil Nadu. These experiences fed my love for natural textiles in such a refreshing way, added a deeper dimension to our travels.

Toda Hilltribe Elder, Tamil Nadu, India

Traditional Toda Hilltribe Embroidery

The Maiwa Textiles Symposium is one of my favorite events in Vancouver. This year, as the VIFF was wrapping up, the symposium was just getting under way. I attended a few lectures that informed and inspired my love of the woven world. Autumn in Vancouver is a good place to be with such inspiring events, I only wish I could attend them all… Today I watched Tibetan Monks dismantle a vibrant sand mandala that they have spent days creating and submerged the grains of sand in the ocean, symbolizing impermanence and allowing the sand to continue its existence in another form. These grains of sand are blessing the waters of Spanish Banks as they have been a part of a highly charged sacred mandala. In a reflective state I observe the impermanence in my life, ebb and flow, every moment infused with perfection, only sometimes not visible. Inspired from my environment, inspired from within.

 

creative weave

On the eve of yet another beautifully intense, round, life-provoking full moon I found myself unable to stay home after a long day of work and meetings, so I rounded up Sarina & Solen, my infamous young apprentices, and headed down to the cultural beacon here in Vancouver, the VAG. I make a point of going to galleries when I visit a city, and make a point of staying current with the major galleries of the city I live in and a few smaller favorites as well.

Jeff Wall’s work is being exhibited and I felt drawn to see his works again. I have seen his works and attended an artist talk a few years back in my days of involvement with the CAG, but was very excited to see him in the gallery this evening. He was giving a private tour to some of the subjects of his photographic works, a collection of homeless/street youth, it was a very special event. As there was a crowd around him it was easy to stand in the back with other gallery folk and listen to his engaging talk. I enjoyed serendipitously running into his little tour of the exhibition at the beginning and having the chance to hear him speak about his creative process as he brilliantly fuses the creative with the technical. I think what I enjoy about his works, aside from the brilliant light coming from behind the images, is that he treats his works as if they are a movie, there is a production involved. His images always have such a story to tell, and much to say about the world we live in. And the city I live in.

I also enjoyed Kai Althoff’s exhibition, especially the collaborative instillation: The Weaving Place showcasing the work of San Fran artist Travis Joseph Meinholf, inventor of the Laser-Loom! The room was filled with weaving projects that you can work on, a modified handloom, woven fabrics, spindles, quilts and more! I was in heaven. Art and hand made textiles all under one roof! The instillation examines alternative methods of producing goods and really showed the beauty of fabrics made by hand, there is no comparison for me.

Equally as impressive was Evelyn Roth’s Environment for Reading Recycled from 110 Sweaters, 1974, a part of the WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution exhibition. A tipi-like structure was knit from the yarn of old sweaters with a light hanging from the middle. It was a beautiful work in alternative/sustainable media transforming the environment within the gallery.

Sarina and Solen’s favorite was Martina Minujin & Richard Squires’ Soft Gallery, 1973. Imagine a room created out of many mattresses and you could bounce freely or chill and watch a movie playing on the suspended tv. Or take a nap as one patron did. Solen polished his great somersault in the air move.

youth appreciating the arts

I am off to drink some tea and have a good conversation with the moon that is full. Weaving my kaleidoscopic-like roles that I have back into my heart.