The Bay Area Forum for artists, Textile Arts Council aficionados & collectors of weaving, rugs & tapestries, baskets, costume & wearable art January 2013 Upcoming Programs and Announcements Unless otherwise indicated*, all programs are held in the Koret Auditorium at the de Young Museum in Volume XXVIII, Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Drive, San Francisco. Admission to the programs is FREE to TAC Number 1 members, $10 for non-members, and $5 for FAMSF members and students with I.D. No additional Museum admission fee is necessary. You may enter from the garage level or the main floor entrances at the front and side doors of the Museum. (*alternate location, when indicated, is the Legion of Honor Museum, 34th Ave & Clement St., San Francisco.) Saturday, January 19, 2013, 10 a.m. This enabled her to create limited editions of HAND JACQUARD WEAVING: ONE tapestries in complex weaves that were inspired THREAD AT A TIME by her new country setting in Lake County, CA. O’Hara will show how the development With Sheila O’Hara of her imaginative textiles opened doors for Handweaving has become the lucky beneficiary her to work as a consultant for a company of the computer age, as the dream of individual in Cairo in 2006 to analyze antique jacquard thread control becomes more accessible. Once ribbons and weave prototypes. She was also thrilled with computer-assisted dobby looms, invited to attend a symposium at the Lisio handweavers are now Foundation in Florence, Italy, in 2007, where searching out hand jacquard they teach weaving classes. They also weave looms for their explorations. amazing brocade and velvet fabrics on old hand Enjoy an informative and jacquard looms using punch cards as well as on entertaining lecture about one computerized hand jacquard loom. In 2008 Sheila O’Hara’s textile O’Hara received a hand jacquard loom with 672 art and its development hooks, thanks to the generosity of Mim Wynne from countermarche to in Arkansas. O’Hara’s latest work includes lush compudobby to hand landscapes, a series of jacquard tapestries jacquard looms. The slide inspired by Edward Curtis photographs of presentation will cover Native American Indians, and most recently, design, commissions, and some of her imaginary landscapes again. She inspiration. is thrilled to weave at home and explore the Sheila O’Hara’s unique myriad of possibilities this new technology weave structure has offers her. enabled her to create Since her graduation from the California College lush surface textures. She of the Arts in Oakland, CA, in 1976, Sheila started out on a 16 shaft O’Hara has pursued a career in textiles. Her countermarche loom in 1976 innovative and often humorous tapestries have and then used a 16 shaft gained international attention. Her work has compudobby loom from been featured in numerous publications and is 1984-2000. The complex in many public, private, and museum collections combining of colors including the de Young Museum. Currently she enhanced the imaginary Fine Arts travels to give lectures and workshops and also Museums of landscapes O’Hara wove in offers ongoing weaving classes in her home San Francisco her one-of-a-kind tapestries. studio. More information about Sheila OíHara From 2000 to 2006, she can be found at www.sheilaohara.com de Young rented time on two hand and www.edwardcurtistapestry.com Legion Global Healing, Sheila O’Hara, C 2012, jacquard looms in Berkeley. of Honor hand-woven jacquard tapestry, 57” x 20” Programs continue on page 2, col. 1 1 Programs continued from page 1 Saturday, February 9, 2013, 10 a.m. and exquisite royal dancers, and its saliently batik makers. One of them, the PRESERVING AN ANCIENT narrow, winding alleys dotted with tiny, young artist Gianto, had his studio in the CRAFT: THE ART OF BATIK oil-lamp lit guesthouses, enchanted him. Taman Sari area, the former water palace Delicious Javanese food, prepared at of the Sultan of Yogyakarta. He invited With Rudolf Smend pavement warungs (eateries) was always Smend to stay and practice the technique. Handcrafted batik from Indonesia has available, and the town appeared to Soon Rudolf Smend with his long red recently been included on UNESCO¥s be teeming with gifted artisans, most beard became an attraction in the area world cultural heritage list. This accolade and other travellers were also motivated to may finally go some way in ending the learn this old technique. widely held and derisory view of the Rudolf Smend is a gallerist and collector. ancient technique of batik as a mere He has run Galerie Smend, in the heart of hobby. old Cologne, for more than three decades Batik is a wax-resistant dyeing (he opened it in 1973 with his wife Karin), technique used on textiles. The word exhibiting contemporary batik artists, and batik is derived from the Javanese word costumes and textiles from Indonesia. ambatik: amba means writing and titik Smend holds seminars, workshops, and means point. This “point writing” is a teaches courses on both the craft of batik test of patience. Hot wax is applied to and painting on silk. fabric with a tool that holds the hot wax. After each layer the material is dyed, Saturday, March 16, 2013, 10 a.m. dried, and the wax melted off. Another CLOTH, CLOUDS, AND layer of wax is applied as every point SURVIVAL: WEAVERS’ TALES and every line, no matter how small, is FROM EAST TIMOR drawn by hand, and the dyeing, drying, With Jill Forshee, PhD and wax removal process repeated. This complex art form has long had East Timor proclaimed national some devoted admirers in Germany independence from Indonesia in 1999, and elsewhere. One of them is Rudolf after 25 years of warfare and resistance. Smend, founder of Galerie Smend in Prior to this, the region had been a colony Cologne, who is also known for his of Portugal for over 400 years. Today, East enthusiasm for contemporary European Timor is among the poorest countries batik art. His acclaimed collection of in Southeast Asia, with a long history of 19th and early 20th century Javanese rule and oppression by outside forces. batik was inspired by his travels Yet life goes on as people struggle to to Indonesia and has been shown maintain cultural and clan identities within internationally. a new nationalism and increasing forms of globalization. Local histories are central to Smend first visited Java in 1972. these identities. The hippy trail took him through the Balkans, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Forshee has been gathering accounts Pakistan, India, and Malaysia but it was from East Timorese for the past 12 years. Indonesia that captured his imagination. The stories reveal much about the struggle Yogyakarta, with its sultan’s kraton and ensuing violence, as well as the (palace), mesmerizing gamelan music persistence of cultural forms (textile arts and folklore). Dr. Forsheeís talk focuses Sash (selendang), Lasem, North Java, 1900-1910, on these, especially the stories of the 62 x 200 cm. The decoration of the cloth indicates meanings of cloth and the events in three the strong influence of the composition of Indian chintz textiles, especially the tree of life design with weavers’ lives over the past 40 years. opened, variegated blossoms. Programs continue on page 4, col. 1 2 FROM THE BOARD’S CHAIR January 2013 TAC BOARD I am honored to be selected as the new Chair in October. Thanks to everyone’s hard work Rose Kelly of the Textile Arts Council Board. I am following that resulted in a successful day. Thanks go Chair in the footsteps of Barbara Kelly with whom I especially to Shirley Juster, Mary Connors, and Suzanne Stassevitch share the same last name as well as a passion Ruth Anderson. Events like these enable the Vice-Chair for textiles. We thank her for her service as Textile Arts Councilís Endowment Fund to add Board Chair and look forward to her input as an important textiles to the Museumís collection. Peggy Gordon advisor. Thank you also to outgoing members, Last fall, we funded the purchase of a Treasurer David Holloway, Peter Poullada, and Sandra whimsical top hat fashioned from human hair. Sardjono, for their important contributions to the Hair stylist Odile Gilbert originally designed Ruth Anderson Board. At the same time we welcome three new the hat for Jean Paul Gaultier’s fall 200/2007 Barbara Beckmann members, Leslie Budge, Helen Scully, and Dana “Surrealist Collection”; another from the Walsh. Leslie has jumped right in and accepted same collection was exhibited in the Gaultier Mikki Bourne the position as Secretary. Completing the exhibition. Jean Cacicedo Executive Committee is Suzanne Stassevitch The annual Holiday Party and Auction is a as the newly elected Vice Chair, and Peggy Sharon Christovich thank you from the Board to the Textile Arts Gordon continues as Treasurer. The TAC Board Robin Hampton Council members who support TAC through is composed of an impressive array of textile their dues and donations as well as by Karin Hazelkorn enthusiasts including collectors, artists, and volunteering at lectures and other events. Jean scholars, who work very hard to support the David Holloway Cacicedo was responsible for the delicious Textile Department’s endeavors. Darlene Jurow food, and Barbara Beckmann assisted by This past fall was a very busy time for the Textile Karine Langan organized the auction. Board Shirley Juster Arts Council. The lecture series continued members and friends of TAC helped out Connie Levy to offer interesting and varied topics. The with getting donations, arranging the food, Judy Norman November lecture by Connie Strayer on dance and displaying the auction items. It was a costume was a wonderful addition to the current wonderful event—a big success—held late in Heather Oelerich exhibit Rudolph Nureyev: A Life in Dance the year.