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University of California Berkeley Regional Oral History Office University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California Fiber Arts Oral History Series Kay Sekimachi THE WEAVER'S WEAVER: EXPLORATIONS IN MULTIPLE LAYERS AND THREE-DIMENSIONAL FIBER ART With an Introduction by Signe Mayfield Interviews Conducted by Harriet Nathan in 1993 Copyright 1996 by The Regents of the University of California Since 1954 the Regional Oral History Office has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the Nation. Oral history is a modern research technique involving an interviewee and an informed interviewer in spontaneous conversation. The taped record is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The resulting manuscript is typed in final form, indexed, bound with photographs and illustrative materials, and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ************************************ All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between The Regents of the University of California and Kay Sekimachi dated April 16, 1995. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, 486 Library, University of California, Berkeley 94720, and should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user. The legal agreement with Kay Sekimachi requires that she be notified of the request and allowed thirty days in which to respond. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Kay Sekimachi, "The Weaver's Weaver: Explorations in Multiple Layers and Three- Dimensional Fiber Art," an oral history conducted in 1993 by Harriet Nathan, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1996. Copy no. Kay Sekimachi with some of her work, 1992 (Photograph by Tom Grotta) Cataloging information SEKIMACHI, Kay (b. 1926) Fiber artist The Weaver's Weaver: Explorations in Multiple Layers and Three-Dimensional Fiber Art. 1996, xi, 154 pp. Family, San Francisco; Berkeley public schools; paper dolls, dress; WWII relocation camps, art study; California College of Arts and Crafts, Carol Purdie, design, water color, silk screen; Pond Farm, Marguerite Wildenhain; Black Mountain College, Anni Albers; Trude Guermonprez; Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Jack Lenor Larsen; techniques of loom weaving in two and three dimensions and layering, and of off -loom weaving, folding and stitching, twining, two and three dimensions; photographing fiber arts, life-span of materials; adult education classes, workshops; Fiberworks, Gyb'ngy Laky; Pacific Basin School of Textile Arts; UC Berkeley, Katherine Westphal, Ed Rossbach, Lillian Elliott; Palo Alto Cultural Center joint exhibition with husband Bob Stocksdale; Signe Mayfield, Ted Cohen; Japan, and artistic heritage; galleries, museums, Lausanne biennial, invitational shows . Introduction by Signe Mayfield, curator, Palo Alto Cultural Center. Interviewed 1993 by Harriet Nathan for the Fiber Arts Oral History Series. Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. TABLE OF CONTENTS --Kay Sekimachi PREFACE i INTRODUCTION- -by Signe Mayfield iv INTERVIEW HISTORY--by Harriet Nathan vii BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION xi I FAMILY AND MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD San Francisco, Japan, Berkeley, and Wartime Relocation Art Instruction, Tanforan and Topaz 3 After-School Paper Dolls 5 Working in Cincinnati 6 II STUDIES AT CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF ARTS AND CRAFTS (1946-1949), JOBS IN THE BAY AREA, AND BECOMING PROFESSIONAL 8 Learning Watercolor, Design, Silkscreen 8 Four-Harness Loom and a Weaver's Heritage 9 Silkscreen Christmas Cards, and Small Weavings 10 Warping and Threading, Working as an Apprentice Weavers' Guilds, and Exhibitions 11 Trude Guermonprez, Pond Farm Lecture (1951) 13 Friendship of Fritzi Zuckerman 13 Understanding the Loom, Two Summer Sessions (1954-1955) 14 III HAYSTACK MOUNTAIN SCHOOL OF CRAFTS (1956) 16 Lessons with Jack Lenor Larsen 16 "Summer Camp" and Art 17 Class Monitor 18 Larsen 's Essay on the Retrospective Show 20 Some Teachers at Haystack 22 IV BAY AREA SCENE; LEARNING TECHNIQUES; TEACHING 24 Gauze Weaves and Room Dividers 24 Weave Drafts 25 Trude 's Classes, and Teaching at the California College of Arts and Crafts 26 Eight-Harness Loom and a Double-Weave Wall Hanging 27 Teaching Workshops and Classes 28 Fascination with Multi-Layered Weaves 30 Learning with Students 32 From Weaving to Baskets, Paper, Wood 32 Possibilities in Paper Bowls 33 Family Crest Story 37 Choosing Trude 's Style 38 Workshops' Focus on Techniques 38 Teachers at CCAC 39 V MEMORIES OF JAPAN 40 Family Reunion at Nakalshizakl (1975) 40 Generations of Weavers 41 Silk Cocoons and Banana Fiber 42 Art with Japanese Names 43 Kiriwood Tansu 43 Father's Drawings 45 Mother's Taste 45 "Fiber Works: The Americas and Japan" (1977) 46 VI EXHIBITS AND SHOWS, STIMULUS TO EXPERIMENT 48 Ideas for Weaving Small Boxes 48 Miniatures and Woven Baskets (1978) 49 Sequence of Fiber Forms 51 California Design Shows (1962-1972) 51 "Deliberate Entanglements;" and the Lausanne Biennal (1973) 52 Off -Loom, Cardweaving, and the Board 54 Split-Ply Twining, a Miniature Basket, and Three Dimensions 56 Woven Books 58 Clay and Fiber Gallery, and Southwest Workshops 58 Techniques for Rugs, for Gauzes 60 Poland (1981) 61 "Wall Hangings," New York (1968) 62 Brown/Grotta Gallery, East Coast 63 Miniature Art for Jack Larsen's Sixty-Fifth Birthday 64 Photos of Fiber Art 65 Trove of Japanese Paper 66 Folding Box Forms and Stitching Paper 67 Ideas for Techniques and Materials 68 Room Dividers in Ikat 72 Anneberg Gallery (1971) and Others 73 American Craft Council's Fiftieth Anniversary (1993) 76 Friends of Fiber Art International Wood-Grain Paper as Fiber "Marriage in Form" Show, Palo Alto (1993) and the Catalog 78 Show's Travels and Associated Programs 83 Materials, Weave, and Form 86 Collectors' Interests 86 VII MARRIAGE TO BOB STOCKSDALE (1972) 89 Bob Stocksdale and His Family 89 Travel, and a Broader Life 90 Visiting English Weavers 91 VIII TRUDE GUERMONPREZ 94 Some Significant Innovations 94 " 95 "The Tapestries of Trude Guermonprez , Oakland Museum (1982) Black Mountain College Connection 96 A Gift for Clarity 97 Open-Weave Tapestry 98 Controlling the Harnesses 99 Weaving for the Home and Designing for Industry 100 Comment: Personal Disinterest in Business 101 Trude's Wall-Hangings and Tapestries 102 Pond Farm, and Later 103 Pacific Basin and Fiberworks 103 Trude's Techniques and Personal Adaptations 105 Observing Scale and Materials 106 Trude as a Teacher: Her Students at CCAC 107 Building Trude's Studio at Twill House 109 Trude's Will, Works, and Papers 111 Fiber Artists as Innovators 113 Oakland Show Catalog, and "Trude Remembered" 114 IX CURRENT STATUS OF FIBER ARTS 116 Division into Specialties 116 Focus on Baskets, Wood, Furniture 117 Works by Fellow Artists 119 "Kay's Folly," and Computer-Aided Looms 120 X FURTHER COMMENTS ON EXHIBITS 121 "Objects USA" (1970) 121 "Wall Hangings" (1968) Monof ilaments, Lee Nordness Galleries (1970) 123 Collections and Requests 124 The Hand and the Spirit Gallery (1993) 125 Volcano Art Center (Future) 125 Katy Gingrass Gallery, and Berkeley Art Center (Future) 126 More on "Marriage in Form" (1993) 126 "Eloquent Object" (1987) 127 Life Span of Materials 128 "Craft Today: Poetry of the Physical" 132 Aspects of the Lausanne Biennal (1973) 132 APPENDICES 134 A. Vita, 1993. 135 B. "Kay Sekimachi," by Yoshiko Uchida. Craft Horizons, May/June 1959. 141 C. "AIA Award to Weaver," (re: Trude Guermonprez) ARTWEEK, February 7, 1990. 142 D. Review of "Orikomu" (Interlace) [nylon monof i lament, 52", 1967 by Kay Sekimachi], by Louis Chapin, The Christian Science Monitor, July 30, 1970. 143 f E. "Craftsmen Exhibit Intriguing Work," by Tom Hysom, Gallery 1, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1975. 144 F. "Kay Sekimachi: Successful on Her Own Terms," by Charles Talley, Fiberarts, September/October 1982. 145 G. "Textile artist's designs on new direction," by Melinda Levine, The Sunday Paper, February 27, 1983. 148 H. "Vessels of Power and Promise," by Charles Talley, ARTWEEK vol. 19, no. 43 (December 17, 1988), p. 5. 149 INDEX 150 PREFACE The Regional Oral History Office of The Bancroft Library selects as memoirists persons who have played important roles in the development of the western community. Since the beginning of the oral history program, artists in many fields have taken their place among the memoirists. When the art of handweaving went through an upheaval during the 1950s, fiber artists gained new recognition, and developed novel ways of using fiber as a means