Gallery Exhibitions

23 June, 2015

Footpath and the Midwest Weavers Conference

beckarahn2015-06-23T11:54:43-05:00Gallery Exhibitions, Out & About, Weaving, Felting & FIbers|Comments Off on Footpath and the Midwest Weavers Conference

Footpath. The design for this moebius scarf was inspired by one of the patterns in the WGM’s 75th Anniversary “A Thread Through Time” book. I used the basketweave tie up pattern on page 56 and translated it into a colorful geometric design, created with bits of colored and patterned paper pulled from junk mail and catalogs. I assembled the geometric design, scanned it and created a seamlessly repeating pattern that was digitally printed on to fabric.

This last week was the Midwest Weavers Conference here in Minneapolis. This is a regional conference hosted every other year in a different city. Our local Weavers Guild were the hosts for the conference and I was asked to teach two technology classes as part of conference seminars, one about marketing yourself online and one about photo editing. The piece above was my submission to the Instructors Exhibit. Since I am only a little bit of a weaver, I didn’t want to have my little pieces on display with the masters, so I decided to go with what I am good at, but with a weaving twist.

Our Weavers Guild is celebrating their 75th birthday this year. As part of the celebration, they put together a book. For years, as I understand it, the guild newsletter included a weaving draft and a tiny swatch of fabric made by volunteers, so in each newsletter, you not only got the pattern, but an example as well. For their birthday, they pulled drafts from the archives and had guild members make contemporary pieces based on those designs and they put it altogether into a book. So I decided to do the same, but with my twist. So, I used the tie up pattern from a basketweave draft and translated it into color. The design was made with paper punches and recycled paper from junk mail, receipts, newspaper and an Art-A-Whirl catalog glued to a piece of black card stock. I call it Footpath because the tie up pattern is the part of the draft that tells you how to tie up the treadles, which are the pedals you control with your feet when you are weaving on a floor loom. So I made this design into a piece of fabric and stitched a cowl scarf to be a part of the exhibition. I love that it is fun and bright; I think I might keep this one for myself. I didn’t get a photo of the finished piece, but that is the printed fabric in the top photo.

The conference was awesome! I volunteered for several days at the Guild to help with their fiber shop and I taught two classes with really wonderful groups of students from all over the country. I met a lot of cool people and the sense of fun and enthusiasm throughout the conference was infectious. Everyone seemed to be really enjoying everything about it. I am so glad that I was invited to be there. Thanks to the organizers, advisors, attendees and volunteers who made it great!

4 June, 2015

Collaborating: An artist and two museums

beckarahn2015-06-04T12:24:16-05:00Gallery Exhibitions, Spoonflower & Fabric Design|Comments Off on Collaborating: An artist and two museums

Last night I was the guest artist at a special event for the Hennepin History Museum. It was an event to thank donors and the museum wanted to have me there to talk about ways that contemporary artists can work with and be inspired by museums. The curator pulled out the feather fan that I photographed and created a skirt design from. I also brought this skirt, which is a photograph of a woodwork detail at the museum.

This isn’t my only museum collaboration though, and I am thrilled to pieces to be able to show you this one. I have been keeping it under wraps for a while.

I was approached by a graduate student intern at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum in Chicago with an inspiring opportunity. They were trying to find a way to bring some modern relevance to their collection and had invited a group of contemporary artists and community members to create works in response to pieces in their collection. They would give me photographs of a piece and then I could do anything to respond to it: write, create, curate. They had a textile piece and wondered if I might like to respond. YES!

They sent me several photos of the “sash”. I am not sure what this piece is for sure. It is woven and beaded and embroidered. It is about 22 inches wide and 30 long. In consulting with various textile geeks I know, our best guess is that it was a sampler type project, maybe using small samples or scraps of techniques used in classes and was meant to be decorative, like something to adorn the front of a podium.

My contact at the museum said,

“What is the role of the textile arts in an age of modern textile technology. Why do so many people make / construct their own textile clothing, garments, etc. ? In the early 20th century the Hull–House offered many textile, weaving, and sewing classes that were extremely popular at a time of tremendous factory expansion. The people taking those classes didn’t need to hand-produce their own articles, yet they did. What similarities exist between then and now? “

I decided to respond to the piece in two way: by making a contemporary piece and then writing a short essay to talk about the two pieces together. I decided first to make a textile piece to reflect the parts of the sash I found striking: the long fringe, the zig-zag trim, the gold sequins, the bold colors. I wanted something that was modern and fun and wearable, but that had a real tangible connection to my inspiration piece. I wanted people to look at it and immediately see the connection between the two. I decided to go modern and make it from digitally printed fabric using an “all digital” design. I very often work from photographs, but for this I didn’t want to print an adapted photo, but I wanted to use “modern technology” to create the design by drawing it all in a very virtual and non-tactile way, with vector art in Adobe Illustrator.

I call this skirt “Sashay”. I pulled colors out of the photo to create the design. The zig-zag motif makes a yoke on the skirt and is echoed with a peek of ric-rac trim at the hem. On each yellow bar on the design, I hand-stitched vintage gold sequins so there are subtle lines of sparkle. It is digitally printed on to linen/cotton fabric.

The Hull-House Museum has put together a website to feature all of the response pieces for this project called “Look At It This Way”. You can read my essay about the two pieces by visiting the site and checking out the other responses from musicians, poets and more. I am delighted to have been a part of this project and I had a great time working on it.

14 May, 2015

This Weekend: Art-A-Whirl and Shepherd’s Harvest

beckarahn2015-05-14T07:52:28-05:00Gallery Exhibitions, Out & About|1 Comment

This weekend I will be doing nothing but art. And I mean literally nothing because I am participating in not one, but two great events and I am spending my time split between the two of them.

First, I will be at Art-A-Whirl, which is a giant open studio event in NE Minneapolis. I am the guest artist in studio 401-B with my friends Ingrid and Eric. It’s my first Art-A-Whirl and I think it’s going to be fun. We are on the 4th floor in the Northrup King Building. There are lots of good signs, just look for 401. I will have all digitally printed fabrics there. I have 3 dresses that are “show pieces” and a bunch of skirts, scarves, ties and hankies that are for sale. I will be at AAW Friday, Saturday after 2pm and for just a bit on Sunday morning.

I will also be at the Shepherd’s Harvest Festival at the Washington County Fairgrounds on Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon. Thanks to my awesome booth mates who are helping me be at both events! This is my 5th year (or something like that) at Shepherd’s Harvest and I will have laser cut jewelry and looms and some new really cute zipper bags featuring all kinds of knitting and fiber puns. I even made a new day-glo pink laser cut loom just for this year’s festival.

20 April, 2015

Things they don’t tell you about being an artist…

beckarahn2015-04-20T17:39:35-05:00Everything Else, Gallery Exhibitions|2 Comments

I just finished 28 hours of an art show. That’s probably really 36 hours on my feet on a hard concrete floor once we have set up and tear down. The experience was amazing and I wouldn’t trade any of those minutes for anything, but chatting with my fellow artists all weekend brought out some things that we agreed they never tell you are part of the job description.

1. Describe your art in 10 words.

When you meet anyone at an art fair there are about 100 things competing for their attention. You need to be able to talk about what you do in 10 words or less if you want to start a conversation with someone and talking about your art is why both of you are there, usually. My phrase for this event was “Let me know if you have questions. These are all digitally printed fabrics from manipulated photographs.” Most people would pause for a second (as they made sense of all of those technical sounding words that I just said) and then I would get a big smile and they would say “Oh, that’s really cool!” or “Wow, I’ve never heard of that.” I had a lot of really great conversations that started just that way.

2. Cute outfits always include comfortable shoes.

There is just nothing like the 10th hour on your feet in inappropriate shoes. Danskos will save your life. Cute dress, tights, danskos, cardigan sweater. That’s my uniform. Pockets are also really necessary.

3. Eat lunch in 2 dozen 2 bite segments.

Almonds, cheese and apple slices are my very favorite show lunch. You can eat two bites between conversations, and your fingers don’t get messy. Sometimes you are lucky and you can step away for a few minutes and sometimes you just can’t. This particular show had a demonstration by the local TeaSource (who will be forever my heroes!) just across an aisle and I can’t tell you how good a hot cup of tea is when you have been talking all day.

4. You will get sick the week after it is done.

I shook about eleventy-thousand hands and I was already stressed and a little sleep deprived from getting everything ready. It was inevitable. I should remember to schedule nothing the week after because that’s exactly what is going to get done: nothing.

5. You will have another deadline.

The week I was getting ready for this show (the biggest one I have ever done!) was also the week that the final edit of the manuscript for my book was due. Yup. Two deadlines right on top of each other and by the time I realized that they were all going to happen on the same week there was nothing I could do but hang on for the ride. The universe will sense all of that great creative energy and will throw things at you like crazy. The best strategy is to just admit that you are insane and not let the stress get to you. I let some things go, I wrote some emails and apologized for having to delay a few others and I tried to enjoy what I could – these were really GOOD things happening that were making me stressed.

I didn’t really listen to my own best advice, although to be fair, I didn’t know about either the show or the book deadline when I agreed to this week’s project: Black Hills Fiber Arts Fair. I will be teaching 4 classes and minding a little vendor booth all weekend in Rapid City SD, my hometown. Hopefully I will be over this cold. The classes are ones that I know and love and so there is no stress about preparing for any of them. Just good fun teaching. If you are in the neighborhood, stop by! My youngest sister will be minding the booth for me so I can teach one day. Say hi to her too.

What are your additions to the artist’s job description? I know you have them.

13 April, 2015

Thank you to the American Craft Council!

beckarahn2015-04-13T18:40:44-05:00Everything Else, Gallery Exhibitions, Out & About|2 Comments

A huge thank you to all of the artists at the American Craft Council show in St Paul. I was part of a “Hip Pop” pod, which is ACC’s new emerging artists program. They curated pods of 6 new emerging artists and we shared a double booth space at the show. The artists, the shoppers, and the staff were all so enthusiastic and supportive of our pod, I can’t say enough thanks to them. We felt loved!

A special shout out to veteran artists John Jameson, Sharon Rosenthal, Arlene Wohl and Kay Chapman. They were our neighbors at pod #303 and were absolutely welcoming and supportive (and funny when we all started to get a little tired).

I was in amazing company with my pod mates who are all so talented. I am so glad we got to spend the days together and I hope we run into each other many times again.

Matthew Krousey. Matt works in richly textured ceramics that have a strong connection to nature and organic designs.

Nick Lundeen Nick’s jewelry has a sense of agelessness in style and texture.

Betty Jäger Betty’s work has as much personality as she does. Organic, unexpected, lots of sparkle.

Lauren Mayhew Lauren incorporates bold graphic designs into whimsical knit hats. The pops of color with the soft neutrals remind me a lot of her personality.

Elizabeth Pechacek Elizabeth’s work has a sense of fragility with soft colors and fine lines that is in juxtaposition to the classic forms of her pieces.

Betty, Nick, Elizabeth and I will all be at Art-a-Whirl, Matt does tons of shows around town and keep your fingers crossed for Lauren who has a job interview this week. Please say hi to them if you see them out and about in the art world.

Thank you to all of YOU who stopped by to say hi at the booth. I can’t begin to name all of you, but it was so great to see all of your smiles and to get to show off the work I have been doing. Thank you to Rachel for the Advil and Andi for the tea. You are both life savers.

Today I caught up on all of the emails I have been ignoring and feel like I need a nap. What a weekend!

31 March, 2015

21 Digital Designs: Fun facts

beckarahn2015-03-31T11:35:28-05:00Everything Else, Gallery Exhibitions, Spoonflower & Fabric Design|Comments Off on 21 Digital Designs: Fun facts

I just created this poster for my display at the ACC show which is coming up in just a little over a week! These are all of the designs I will have at the show in the form of skirts or scarves. There are a few favorites there that are designs I developed over the last 3 years or so and many many new designs created in these last 6 months of my new art-making focus.

I thought it would be fun to tell you some fun facts about this collection of designs.

Three are collaborations with my mom. She is an awesome photographer and she knows what I love. She taunts me with these irresistible photo textures and I can’t help but design something. It is super fun to collaborate with her.
Five at least are collaborations with my husband. Also an awesome photographer. Sometimes he snaps photos and puts them in a folder marked “Textures” and waits for me to find them. Sometimes we take photos together and I spot things and say “Get that!”.
The original photos/scans that were used to create these designs were taken in Mt St Michel and Giverny, France; London,England; San Antonio, TX; Hill City and Rapid City, SD; Minneapolis, MN; Orlando, FL.
There are 2 kinds of lace, 2 kinds of leaves, 2 kinds of ice, 2 hand fans. Two images were taken at the Hennepin History Museum. There are two images that are each used in two different designs: a pile of video cables (thanks Jay!) and a collage of painted newspaper.
There are designs made from junk mail, painted paper and scanned maple leaves. The painted paper collection has batik made with elmer’s glue and a rubber eraser, painted sheet music, crumpled brown paper and masking tape.

I had these same images printed onto custom playing cards, so I have a card for each design that will be attached to the tag for each piece. I wanted that to be a part of the piece – the story about where the design came from. And I got an extra deck of cards for people to just look through. For me these designs are about wearable art. I am not a fashion designer or into conceptual fashion. I love basic pieces that show off the surface design and allow you to wear the art. You get to be a part of it. There’s a great quote by Oscar Wilde: “One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.” Exactly.