Enchanted Pathways

My entry to the small format, non-juried exhibit to be held in Santa Fe, NM later this year is now in the mail--and a big "PHEW!" sends it on its way!  The young man at the post office assured me it would arrive on Friday (deadline for receipt of the work is Monday) so I'm hoping for the best.

You might say, "Why did you send it so close to the deadline?" or "Aren't you pushing your luck?"  or "Why are you always rushing to meet a deadline?"  or any number of other questions about my seeming sloth.  And I'd reply, "But I've been working on the design for months! "  Yes, I have--in my head and in my sketchbooks--but that doesn't put weft into warp.  And I was getting near panic mode since I haven't missed an entry into the small format, non-juried tapestry exhibits that have been held every two years since initiated in Portland, Oregon in 1996.  In fact, I was part of the committee that made sure the exhibit once again happened in Atlanta during the 1998 Convergence.  I was darn sure not going to miss this one--although I pushed it to just about the limit for actually getting a new piece done (had a fall-back small piece I could have sent but didn't want to resort to that).

I sent a title of "Long Road Home" for my entry and have been considering the way to exemplify that since then.  My work is very much about time and the passing of time.  The nature themes I base subjects of tapestry upon are really about time.  As I considered the title for the exhibit--"Enchanted Pathways"--the title for the piece I wanted to do occurred to me.  And over the past two months I've thought about that idea and how to show it.  I've made several drawings of symbolic ways to represent the passage of day to night.  But after a few attempts I realized that it would take more concentration to develop the design than I was able to devote now.  So I began to look through my thousands of iPhoto images for a roadway view that I could adapt.

A couple of years ago I was returning from Johnson City, TN, driving down the long, sloping I-26 toward North Carolina.  I was shooting with my digital camera as I drove, holding up the camera with one hand and clicking over and over again, not looking into the display to see what was being captured.  Later when I downloaded the photos I saw that several might be able to work into a tapestry--but didn't do anything with them then.  On Sunday I looked at those shots again and picked out one to crop further into a long horizontal composition.  That's what I worked from, simplified and interpreted with 8 epi warp and four fold strands of wool.  I decided to leave the warp ends exposed because I liked the effect of the "trapped" roadway between the bare warps.  Half-hitches hold the weft in place; warp ends were trimmed to about 1" length at top and bottom.  The little tapestry was sandwiched between a couple of pieces of foam core board, rushed to the P.O., put into a padded envelope and... PHEW!

I'm using up left-over warps on the 45" Tissart loom.

The woven area is 10" wide x 3" high.

Finishing work before pressing and then trimming the warps.