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| ©Kathy Spoering, 2016 Please do not reproduce or share |
Yesterday I completed a series of 12 tapestries that has taken me eight years to complete (although there was about a year and a half in the midst of that when I was working on a commission.) The creation of these tapestries has involved journaling, photographing, sketching, painting, digital designing, warping, weaving, blocking and slit-sewing, framing, living, blood, sweat, tears... and joy. In other words, these tapestries represent my life. The images in them are images I live with: the winter scene from my window, the lake I fish in and my dog swims in, the area I live in which produces four distinct seasons and a harvest of plenty.
These tapestries also represent to me things you cannot see. There is woven into them joyful times, when I took time out to be with my grandchildren, as they have grown from toddlers to adolescents during the creation of the series. Sorrow is woven in, as I lost my beautiful mother while weaving the final tapestries.
The series will finally be exhibited together as a whole. Several of the tapestries have been exhibited separately, but my final goal was to exhibit them together. I will be having an Open Studio showing of them here in October, and then they will be exhibited in my growing up 'home town' of Topeka, Kansas at the NOTO Arts Center, for the months of November and December. The exhibit there, 'Time Warp.... and Weft' will include the weavings of myself and four other artists whose work I truly admire. It will be in conjunction with the American Tapestry Biennial 11, which will hang in the Mulvane Art Center at my alma mater, Washburn University. I am so excited to have these bits of my life go to Kansas, where I still have ties and history.
I will be posting more about the exhibit here soon, so stay tuned....! In the meantime, if you have a flute of the bubbly at hand, celebrate this completion with me!
3 comments:
Wolfgang says: These tapestries are amazing. Especially when they are combined into the calendar series. Are you going to put out an annual calendar with the tapestries? on The Calendar Series tapestries...
Yes, Wolfgang, there will be a calendar. It will be available soon!
Love your tapestries. They are so vivid and realistic. I know you must be filled with joy and relief over this terrific accomplishment. Congratulations.
Congratulations! I can only begin to imagine how satisfying an accomplishment this is for you.
Phillenore
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