: Tireless and Exuberant

BY TRUDI VAN DYKE LESLIE WILLIAMSON

ay Sekimachi continues to pursue a lifelong career centered on the mysteries and discoveries of a myriad of fibers. Whether her earliest works on her first loom or her current explorations with card weaving, the successes are consistent, passionate, and personal. Sekimachi credits her earliest teacher, friend, and mentor German textile artist and designer Trude Guermonprez with the advice to “Try and make Ksomething with the simplest of means.” That she took this to heart throughout her long career echoes in her work. In art school she had begun looking to some sort of graphic or commercial applications for her creativity when she was caught up in a fascination for weaving. She bought a loom, which she still has, and fed her fascination by taking lessons and joining guilds. She found success with early awards and sales, and has never looked back or lost that initial excitement for finding her way with threads and fiber. Her rise to the forefront of contemporary in the ’60s and ’70s is highlighted by her extraordinary with monofilament. She was drawn to the monofilament as a material that could be manipulated and yet hold its shape. These graceful loom-constructed three- dimensional sculptures are multi-layered. Sekimachi explores ideas of space, transparency, and movement with these diaphanous tubular forms, which are hung, allowing for movement and for light to pass through them. Her work is fully accessible to broad audiences as she successfully incorporates an astounding complexity of intimate detail. At the same time, she does not lose sight of providing viewers with the subtle simplicity of form and design. Sekimachi shares that she “loves to solve problems.” Developing the pieces with the unusual material of monofilament left plenty of room for experimentation that she found intriguing and motivating as she worked with the structures for ten years. The -based artist is deeply connected to nature and finds it entwined in her inspirations from her Japanese ancestral homeland and three decades of annual stays in Hawaii. A self-proclaimed beachcomber, she has regularly harvested shells, fossils, and whatever ephemera the tides laid at her wandering feet. She has found joy and peace in HERE: Asian Willow; 1998; organizing and arranging her collections with no particular thoughts about them except her skeleton leaves, paper, watercolor, wallpaper paste, appreciation of them as natural works of art in their own right. Krylon; 7 x 6 in.; collection of Forrest L. Merrill Eventually, though, the extensive collection of ephemera seemed to open up a new direction to combine with her weaving into the personal adornment of jewelry. She began incorporating CENTER: Takarabako Series; 1999; linen, acrylic her shells and bits of coral with card weaving and other textile techniques such as split ply, paint on warp, boning armature; braiding, plaiting, and knotting to create one-of-a-kind wearable art. Because she is drawn M. LEE FATHERREE M. Dimension variable. ARTS OF BROWNGROTTA COURTESY GROTTA, ©TOM to natural colors, polished cottons, and linens, the jewelry creates a feeling of respect for the

14 FIBERARTNOW.NET • WINTER 2015/16 WINTER 2015/16 • FIBERARTNOW.NET 15 HERE: White Necklace with Limpets; 2009; linen and shells; cardwoven seam- less tube; 27 in. long; Collec- tion of Forrest L. Merrill

CENTER: Katsura; 1971; black nylon monofilament; 4-layered and tubular weaves; 43 x 15 x 13 in.; Collection of Grace Ulp,

FAR RIGHT: 100 Views of Mt. Fuji; 1981; linen; double weave, transfer print on warp; 4.5 x 4 x 20 in, (book extended); Collection of Forrest L. Merrill M. LEE FATHERREE M.

natural rhythms of the sea. Sekimachi expresses clearly that in order for a piece to be successful the embellishments must be enhancements to the overall piece. Much of her current work is focused on card weaving. This ancient technique has found its way into her jewelry creations as well as free-form sculptures. Plans are made on graph paper as in loom weaving. She describes her grid in preparation for weaving as “looking like a huge cribbage board.” The cards, which look like playing cards, have holes at each corner through which the warp threads are threaded. The cards are then turned on edge to make a shed. The weft is pushed through the shed from the same side. After the piece is woven, it is pulled to make a tube. Another direction Sekimachi’s creative curiosity has drawn her to is weaving books. She paints images from nature onto tracing paper with transfer dyes. The images are then heat- transferred to the stretched warp threads. The accordion-style, intimately-sized books have an ethereal quality that enhances the relationship between the weavings and the inspiration of the natural beauty in the artist’s surroundings. Other farther-reaching experiments have involved bowl-making with paper reclaimed from hornet’s nest paper. She is always on the lookout for new textures and mediums to incorporate and inspire her work. An exhibition of Sekimachi’s work in conjunction with that of her late husband, iconic woodturner , was recently at the Bellevue Arts Museum in Washington where a series of her leaf bowls was exhibited. The skeletonized leaves are soaked and molded into shapes and treated with a technique Sekimachi developed using Japanese handmade kozo paper and paste to take the finished form. The translucent and illusionary pieces take on a presence of their own and enhance the relationship between the husband and wife whose respect and love for the beauty of the natural is shared through their art. The seemingly tireless and exuberant artist expresses the delight of preparing for two new exhibitions. The Textile Education Gallery at the deYoung Museum in will mount: Kay Sekimachi Student, Teacher, Artist in the spring of 2016. The exhibition will focus Trudi Van Dyke on her work in all those roles throughout her career. Secondly, a solo exhibition is being is an independent curated from the Forrest L. Merrill Collection to open in the fall of 2016 at the Los Angeles curator, juror, and Craft and Folk Art Museum. writer, specializing in fiber and fine craft The images in this article are featured in Independent Curator Signe Mayfield’s book In The exhibitions. Contact her Realm Of Nature: Bob Stocksdale & Kay Sekimachi from the exhibition of the same title mounted at [email protected]. LEE FATHERREE M. for the Mingei International Museum in San Diego. It is available at fineartspress.com.

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