Welcome to this page on which I want to tell you about many projects I am working on during my retIrement from college teaching. As many of you know, I now divide my time between my house in New York and the beach house in South Carolina. To visit my beach house, select www.7hickorylane.homestead.com.
Some projects relate to research and publication I have already done, while others are new interests that I am running after. They are grouped under the following headings:
TRAVEL:
In 2001, I had the great good fortune to travel with Sheila Paine, author of Embroidered Textiles, to the Central Asian countries of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Karakulpakstan. She was able to give us many insights into life in these countries, show us fabulous textiles and jewelry, introduce us to knowledgeable curators and help us understand how textiles are, and were created.
My slides from the trip are wonderful ( see a photo of the center of Khiva at the left) and I have been using them to do a series of lectures to textile groups and other interested people. I gave a talk at Armstrong College in Savannah Georgia to the Fiber Guild of the Savannahs and I lectured on Hilton Head Island at the Self Family Art Center for Women's month and in May, 2001 I talked to the WARP members at their conference in New Hampshire, 2001.
My travel plans in 2002 included a trip to Finland, to Northern Russia around the Arkhangelsk area, and a visit to Chuvashia. I will return to Chuvashia in usmmer 2004. To learn more about this trip visit: www.chuvusproject.homestead.com
In 2003 I accompanied the Textile Museum tour "Textile Traditions of Old Europe" to Romania and Hungary while serving as the tour study lecturer.
PUBLICATION:
During the winter, 2001 I was involved with a project design for PieceWork magazine. To accompany an article by Helene Cincebeaux on Slovak leather vests, I designed an applique eye-glasses case using similar techniques of construction and embroidery. Both the article and the project appeared in the March 2001 issue, so look for it.
An article for Handwoven is in the works for January, 2002. It is on the Overhogdal tapestry I researched in Sweden .
In 2003 the new book " Making and using Ritual Cloths" was published by Studiobooks. It includes many of the interviews I conducted in Finland and Scandinavia plus other information on rituals and their use of cloth. Diagrams and how to do it projects complete the book.
Finally, a nice note, the book I most recently worked on, Folk Dress in Europe and Anatolia: Beliefs about Protection and Fertility edited by Dr. Linda Welters and published in England by Berg Press in 1999, was awarded honorable mention in London this past November for the Katharine Briggs Folklore Prize and has been shortlisted for the Millia Davenport Award to be announced in April. My Chapter 9 was titled "Living Textile Traditions of the Carpathians."
In 2007 the final book in my trilogy about embroidery was published by Studiobooks. Please click on the Writing button above to find out more about Goddess Embroideries of the Northlands. To order, click below.
LECTURES:
I am currently concentrating on the textiles of Central Asia, and plan to give several talks about the summer trip I took in 2000. If you or your group are interested in this topic, I will be happy to provide a proposal for you.
January, 2001 - Fiber Guild of the Savannahs , Armstrong College, Savannah GA.
March , 2001 - "Women's Work, Women's Textiles" at the Self Family Arts Center, Hilton Head Island, SC
May, 4-6, 2001- WARP Conference, Hancock, New Hampshire
April, 2002 - St. Simon's Island, GA Central Asian Textiles.
September , 2002 - Syracuse Weavers Guild- "Central Asian Textiles" and Central NY Embroiderers Guild - Cortland, NY Talk on Ukrainian and Russian Embroideries. I will also attend the conference Kroje - Dance of Life at the Czech and Slovak Museum in Cedar Rapids, IA in early September where I will lecture on theRituals and Ritual Cloths of Czech and Slovak Women.
ART:
As an artist with never enough time, I am delighted to be free from teaching and have worked on a number of art ideas, since my retirement. I just completed a series of pineapple garden sculptures in terra cotta and am working on a series of shell paintings in watercolor.
Meanwhile I am a member of the art group 'Applepies'; eight painters who meet regularly to make art together. We have had several shows so far and enjoy the stimulation of working out of doors, with portraiture or still life, or to hear a lecture or try out a workshop. In 2002 we had a group show at the Art Center of Coastal Carolina on HIlton Head island . I exhibited my recent acrylic painting series " Storm Series" A sample is to the left. To know more about Applepies please visit us at our site: www.applepies.homestead.com
I am a member of the Hilton Head Art League and have been an Artist in Residence in the gallery this spring. In the summer of 2002, I had a one-person show in the gallery as Featured Artist. I exhibited many large shell paintings and the show was titled "Shells. Several paintings from thits series are on this page.
In 2003 I have been working on a series of acrylic paintings called "Heart of Palm. Several are shown to the left. It will be exhibited in 2005 at the Art Center.
Meanwhile in January - April, 2004, a group of my former paintings of Russia and myths of Russia will be displayed at the Roberson Center for the Arts and Sciences in Binghamton, NY. See my painting page, above, for more information on this and other painting series.
CONFERENCES:
In summer, 2001 I attended the WARP conference in Hancock, NH. I have also volunteered to serve as a member of the WARP board and as elected to serve for 4 years. WARP ( Weave a Real Peace ) is an organization about which I care deeply. It combines my love of the fiber arts with my knowledge of the many 3rd world women who earn their livelihood from their fiberart.
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This exhibition of ceremonial cloth from the Norsk Folkemusem, Oslo and the Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum will take place beginning September 18, 2009 - February 21, 2010. It will be held in the North Gallery at the museum, 523 W.Water St. in Decorah, IA. 52101
A conference is planned to which speakers are invited. A call for papers will be issued by the museum in May, 2008. The conference will be held September 25 - 27th, 2009. A local exhibition titled "Woven Women" will open on September 1st, 2009 also at the museum.
Information on the conference and the show can be obtained by writing to the museum at the address above. Att. Laurann Gilbertson. or www.vesterheim.org
Sacred Symbols will feature approximately 15 embroidered textiles from Norway, and as many from the Vesterheim collections which contain symbols from old Norway some dating from Viking Times. The pieces will be augmented by wooden objects which also bear the same symbols.
