Tuesday, June 21, 2011

What was I thinking?

No, seriously. What was I thinking about before we left to visit our family out west just 5 days ago? This book and these yarns were on the table. I was thinking about something new. But what?  The show catalog Tradition Transformed, Brown/Grotta, No. 22,  is a favorite of mine. Japanese ideas and  9 contemporary weavers, are represented in a collection originally curated by Sheila Hicks, in 1995, at Brown/Grotta gallery, and exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, in  NewYork,  and to coincide,  Brown/Grotta gallery, 1998.

Chiaki Maki and her sister, Kaori Maki, weavers, are part of this group.  Their work and words are so clear to my mind's eye, and help me to think better about what I try to do, every time I come back to weave in my own studio.  Their elegance alone would be hard to match, but their textiles incite memory, or something less tangible, something not quite remembered.  Can a textile do that?  What a painting or a poem can?  Obviously, it can.  Here are the proofs.

When I was weaving as a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, I experienced a moment in which I disappeared, and only the weaving remained. The piece that was born of that moment was fascinating, beyond any description. Such a moment is the very heart of my creation.   Chiaki Maki



                                                                

5 comments:

sosser said...

the magic moment when we disappear in our work - i think perhaps its what we are all seeking :)

anastasia said...

very inspiring ladies. sadly, most of my moments like these come from simple forgetfullness, lately.

Susan said...

Forgetfullness either way can be a good thing. I can't say I try to disappear, but I like the feeling when I come back

Velma Bolyard said...

i find that place in art making, also in riding horses, or at least i used to.

Susan said...

Velma, I call it not being all about me for once, losing myself for a little while.( I knew there must be some explanation why people liked to ride on horses!)