Artist Statement

Patterns provide a platform of engagement that reveals the moment with the momentous. The resultant image comes to represent a flexible moment in time in which is glimpsed a shifting balance of the intellectual with the intuitive. The final woven object celebrates connection, reaffirming the complexity and richness evident in the interaction of abstract systems.

Drawing

Visual ideas are generated on the computer. Fields of patterns are layered upon underlying matrices which provide a foundation for improvised variation. The resultant overlapping networks provide a complementary composite of motifs - continuous or discontinuous systems of varied rhythms syncopated in an interplay of stasis and dynamism reflective of both the micro and macrocosmic.

Process

The loom, as a tool, systematically organizes the threads framed within it’s structure. From the simplest of patterns to a larger geometric repetition, the mechanical operation of the loom provides a foundation upon which the compositional strategy is constructed. The complexity of shapes and compositional dynamics are influenced by the loom and the extent to which the computer may be integrated in the design process. In other words, the method of making affects the formal qualities of the piece - as in the shape and size of the mark, the extent of the details, and the physical textures.

Hand Weavings

Digital Dobby Looms (Macomber and ARM)

The hand woven computer dobby pieces retain a resemblance to the digitally rendered design, although, many of the compositional movements or motifs determined on the computer must be brought into being by careful and practiced hand manipulation of the materials. Patterns painted on the warp are composed intuitively and provide a contrast to the mathematical precision and mechanical regularity of the weave structure. These polychrome threads are interconnected with more textural weft threads in the creation of a tactile plane.

Hand weaving is meditative in it’s repetition, like breathing or walking, connecting the subconscious mind with the body. The rhythm of the building process echoes the slow continual growth and movement in the natural world around us, and is reflective of the cumulative effects of time in space.

Single Thread Control Loom (TC-1 Tronrud, located in the Kent State University Textile Art Studio)

The digital single thread control hand loom provides the unique opportunity for combining refined digital design with material flexibility. In my work this freedom is emphasized through a sensitivity for the integration of the graphic and haptic.

Jacquard Power Loom Weavings

The jacquards are woven on industrial power looms controlled by files created on the artist’s personal computer. These tools can be linked through coded information generated through the use of certain image based software. Pixels viewed on the computer monitor correspond to the intersection (matrix) of threads on the loom and, as such, provide the blueprint for the woven output. A palette of color or value is determined through the calculation of weave structure formulas which represent the interlacement of threads on the loom. The high thread count on the power loom yields fine nuance of detail that becomes a distinctive attribute of these weavings.