Nov 29, 20203 min read

A Pause for Inspiration

Recently I was able to virtually attend the Textile Society of America's Biennial Symposium (website). This year, the theme was Hidden Stories, Human Lives. Although I have found my time in social isolation to be creatively productive, I have greatly missed being able to visit art galleries, museums, and shows. I miss the socializing. The chit chat. The inspiring work. So it was such a welcomed change of pace to be able to attend a variety of talks and lectures online. It goes without saying, the experience was quite a bit different than talks and lectures I’ve attended before. Everything was virtual, but there were lots of different ways to engage with the speakers and other audience members. I was quite impressed with how social it felt regardless of being home in my basement.

One of the lectures I attended was Coded Communications: Digital Weaving as Artist Technology featuring Gabe Duggan, Janie Woodbridge, Robin Haller, and Kate Nartker. Overall, it was a hugely inspiring seminar regardless of the fact that I am not using digital weaving in my capstone. All the artists shared stunning work that showed a honing of their craft, and a journey into an emerging art form. They also shared a thirst for communicating complex feelings or ideas, and I really valued this sentiment. It wasn’t about simplifying things, beating them down to a pulp so that the meaning juices out. Each artist felt an allowance to explore the complexity of their passion, and in fact was drawn towards the advancing medium because of its capability to help them achieve just that.

The two artists that I connected with most were Gabe Duggan (website) and Kate Nartker (website). Gabe was a very cerebral presenter. She spoke in poetry that was tangled with science. I think that is what I connected to most; how she spoke about her work. Though the ideas Gabe discussed were complex, she used words like grit and noise. Words I could relate to, and visualize which made those complex ideas more accessible. She described her vision as “so close in focus that its obscured”, and her process as “guiding the machine to fall apart”. Again, complex, hard to describe ideas easily articulated for my enjoyed consumption.

Kate Nartker hooked me right away with her very specific interest in the relationship between film, animation and weaving; how video and textiles inform one another. This was a relationship I had never thought about and it never ceases to amaze me, the role that textiles have had in informing so many modern day technologies. Kate shared some beautiful films that essentially animated weaving, or wove animation, it's hard to say. Her ability to bring sight and touch together, to explore how they relate and interact was poetic. Watching Kate's films felt like digesting each stage of the process from hand to digital, from textile to film.

Lastly, this seminar really got me thinking about what to do when school is out. All the artists shared how hugely important their MFA's were in ultimately shaping their craft, practice, and even their community. This really gave me pause and I wondered if I should pursue an MFA? I wondered if I was too old for that path? If there was still opportunity for me to study abroad? If I could intertwine motherhood and art and passion and adventures? I wondered what I wanted, and what made sense in our new reality? I wondered with a new set of eyes and inspiration which felt good, it felt hopeful.