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Liev Beuten-Schellekens (Belgium)
The American Tapestry Alliance (ATA), …has been the beginning of my successful and valuable career. Their biennials are my target dates to complete a new tapestry work…
Most of the time, my inspiration comes from a view of a person, mainly women with a specific attitude, very feminine, sometimes even challenging …When I start weaving, I determine which colors will best fit the entirety. . . The colors I use range from sober hues, like gray and black, to very vivid colors, but I always try not to exceed the limits of “harmony.”
…Designing tapestries, choosing colors and wool, weaving ... it all forms a challenging part of my life as I try to improve the expression and warmth of every piece.
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below: Liev Beuten-Schellekens, "Poses,"170cm x 209cm (67" x 82), 2003.
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below: Liev Beuten-Schellekens, "Lady with Green Dress," 168cm x 100 cm (66" x 39"), 1992.
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below: Liev Beuten-Schellekens, "Lady on Red Chair", 145cm x 110cm (57" x 43"), 1987
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Anet Brusgaard (Denmark)
My main field is Haute and Basse Lice. After my education at the Danish Design School in 1980 I worked. . . in a tight, minimalistically graphic black and white style. In 1989-1990, I was a student/stagiaire (intern) at Ecole Nationale d’Art Decoratif d’Aubusson, [which] gave me a method and techniques for greater freedom in my weaving.
Since then, I have worked with different themes, but still very graphically . . . [such as] "Black Cross" shown in the International Tapestry Journal. . . There is also a series of renaissance tapestries all woven with black wool, silk, gold and silver-threads. Today I mostly work on Basse Lice.
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right: Anet Brusgaard, "Répétition," 200cm x 132cm (79" x 51"), 2005; wool, silk, gold, silver and metallic threads.
below: Anet Brusgaard, "Balance" 150cm. x 170cm. (51" x 67") 1980
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David L. Johnson
…I began weaving in 1975 at age 30. . . What I liked best about weaving was that it seemed similar to the process of making music: linear, sequential, and focused on technique… I eventually gravitated toward a calligraphic drawing method that was a direct response to listening to favorite composers and compositions. The piece “Aria” that was in the World Tapestry Today exhibition (1988/89) was a product of that approach . . . inspired by an aria from the second act of Puccini’s “Tosca.”… By the mid-1990s I . . .began to experiment with the construction of mixed media pieces. They frequently involved working with digital images of one sort or another and printing those images on inkjet fabrics. I also began to embellish the surface . . . I mounted them on painted industrial felt and, in some cases, on painted or faux-finished wire screen. Since 2003, I have been combining the old and the new, making tapestry/mixed media pieces with historical/geographical themes, those with a figurative focus, and a series of more sculptural pieces called “Edges.”
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below: David Johnson, "Edge No. 6," 18" x 9" x 2", 2006; tapestry, cotton warp and indigo dyed and painted wool weft,
handmade indigo stained twig beads, indigo stained bamboo rod, waxed linen, industrial felt and stretched canvas.
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below: David Johnson, "Aria," 36" x 54", 1998.
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Ruth Jones: Textile Touchstones
…Living in San Francisco in the early 1980’s, I remember the founding of the ATA, about the time that Jean-Pierre and Yael moved the San Francisco Tapestry Workshop across the Bay, from Noe Valley to Berkeley. . . With the assistance of an early patron, Chris Shearman, . . . I established my studio producing works in a pure expression of my new-found fascination with the medium. …I am now looking back on twenty years of serial patronage, and reflecting on this experience and where it has taken my work.
A strong thread of continuity can be seen in the client's longing to be involved in the making of a memorial to some aspect of his or her life. With my skill as a listener, I seek to engage clients in the transformative magic of this creation, giving them a voice in design and a liminal time frame in which to process their grief, to renew their sense of identity, or to heal a relationship. . . When complete, the tapestry serves as one touchstone to the new fork on their path.
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below: Ruth Jones, "High Above the Valley," 36" x 60", 2004;
cotton warp, wool weft.
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below: Ruth Jones, "Officer and Bishop," 60" x 78", 1985;
cotton warp, silk and wool weft.
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