silkworm - silk painters2 silkworm - volume 21, issue 1 c reating the silkworm has been a labor of...

SILKWORMThe Magazine of Silk Painters International

Volume 21, Issue 1, Spring 2014

Linda Bolhuis’ Thousand Words

Kerr Grabowski: Maker of Beautiful Things

SPIN Threads of Silk Festival

In This Issue:

2 Silkworm - Volume 21, Issue 1

Creating the Silkworm has been a labor of love for me. Over the three years that I was Editor 2010 through the first issue of 2013, I enjoyed

every minute of it. It’s a pure delight and a time-con-suming job. I gave up the Editor’s seat for the sake of my own life – I had so many personal things piling up that needed to be done.

Mary Umlauf did a wonderful job with the Silkworm over the last year and is to be applauded for giving of so much of her personal time, energy and creativity to produce the Silkworm.

In addition, I spearheaded the new website as the Web Chair. Along with members of the Web Commit-tee, Gloria Lanza-Bajo and Suzanne Punch, we hope that the membership and the world is enjoying the new website. It is still a work in progress. Watch it for further developments.

If you haven’t visited the website, there is an article in this issue that will perhaps demystify some of its new features. In fact, it was this job as Web Chair that caused the delay in producing this, the first issue of Silkworm for 2014. We apologize for the delay and hope to have a smoother transition into the next issue.

Thank you for returning to the Silkworm. We hope to keep improving the magazine to make it one of the best stops for information about the finest art of silk painting.

I can’t believe that 2 years have passed so quickly. We are getting ready for our 9th biennial Festival at IAIA campus in Santa Fe, NM. The first Con-

ference began 16 years ago in Fairfax Virginia. The festival team has worked diligently to have the best ever festival this year. We have grown each year and now we have outgrown the IAIA campus. We are look-ing for another campus that is conducive to our needs. Any ideas in your area? Maybe in the East next time – 2016?

Our Board has tried hard to meet the needs of our members. The new website has a membership section that is easy to use and keep up with the members in your area.

The Silk Wiki section on our website is updated. It of-fers information on silk techniques and definitions – a valuable tool for our members to use.

Our organization is a volunteer organization so we are always looking for new and fresh ideas and volun-teers. Be sure to see the section of volunteer opportu-nities in this edition.

Your Board voted to be very transparent in all that we do. Our minutes of all Board meetings are available upon request from our Secretary, Suzanne Visor.

It is time for elections before the festival. We are ask-ing for members to offer their name or the names of other people for possible Board members. You have to be a member to nominate someone and they have to be a member as well. The vote will take place in June by email.

Our Facebook page is awesome. We have over 2,000 silk artists that are showing their work or asking for help. It is a great tool for anyone and everyone to enjoy.

I am especially proud of our new Chapters that have just started up. Suz Knight is the Chair of Chapters and has done a great job of encouraging the Chapters to be engaged and grow. She has a goal of 5 international Chapters and a Chapter in every state.

It has been a great 2 years. So many goals have been reached. We have 400 plus members with a challenge to reach 500 members this next year. We have the new website that offers so much usable information. The Silkworm is a major publication. The Distinguished Silk Artist (DSA) designation honors all forms of Silk Art and artists can apply and be judged by their peers. The designation recognizes artists for their outstanding

The President’s Message

Tunizia Abdur-Raheem, Editor

Tunizia

From The Editor’s Desk

abilities and achievements. Have you applied? One other thing, we had our first mini festival on our off-conference year. It should be called an artist retreat for later events.

Joyce Estes, President

Joyce

3Silkworm - Volume 21, Issue 1

FeaturesLinda Bolhuis’ Thousand Words by Tunizia Abdur-Raheem - 8Kerr Grabowski: Maker of Beautiful Things by Tu-nizia Abdur-Raheem - 11 SPIN Website Redesign by Tunizia Abdur-Raheem - 16

DepartmentsSilkworm Messages - 2Announcements - 3Call for Entries - 19

SPIN Updates & FestivalSPIN Threads of Silk Festival Information: Pricing, Programs, Workshops - 4, 5SPIN Chapter News - 6Call for Volunteers - 6

In This Issue:

Announcements

Please send Letters to the Editor. Stay in touch. We want you to be involved. If you have comments, complaints or suggestions, let us know. Send cor-respondence or photos to [email protected] you have photographs of your art that you would like to have showcased in the Silkworm, send photos with your name and the name of the piece. The photo size should be minimum 5”x 7” and 300 dpi for best printing.To become a member of SPIN or renew your membership, visit www.silk-painters.org/membership.html.

Membership is $50 USD annually and renewable in January of each year.

Volume 21, Issue 1, Spring 2014

Cover art by Kerr GrabowskiBack page art by Kerr Grabowski

Silkworm CreditsEditor: Tunizia Abdur-RaheemMembership Database: Gloria Lanza-Bajo Layout: Keely Dorsey

Send change of address or questions about membership status to Gloria Lanza-Bajo - Membership ChairEmail: [email protected]: 718 624-0313Want to advertise in Silkworm? Send for our media kit at [email protected] us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/silkpainters/All works presented in the magazine are the property of the artists.

SPIN’s New InternAshley Nichols is an English major at Florida State University. She’s been learning about silk paint-ing, writing and editing articles. She has been, overall, a really big help. In fact, she’s such a great addition to the team, we’re having her back in September. I’m sure once Ashley graduates, she’ll find her way into the publishing world as a bright and shining light.


SPIN Threads of Silk Festival: Workshops, Programs, & Pricing

Peach colored entries on facing page indicate closed classes. Blue classes remain open. However, you can add your name to the waiting list for a class in case there are cancellations.

SPIN is headed to Santa Fe, New Mexico once more! You can choose the full package which includes: Four days of work-shops, three meals a day catered at the cafeteria, all lectures, fashion show, art show reception and dormitory room for two from Saturday, July 26, 2014 through Friday, August 1, 2014 -- 7 nights.

Double Occupancy(shared room)

Member Price Non-Member Price$1300.00 $1350.00

Single Occupancy (private room)


Full Package/Off Campus (no on-campus housing & lunches only)


Alternatively, you can go à la carte and create your own package. Please see the website for more information: silkpaint-ers.org/festival.php. Registration must be done online although payments may be mailed. Please email [email protected] if you need assistance.

PRIC

ING

LECT

URE

SCH

EDU

LE

Bunny BowenIntroduction to Rozome

Irma Braun-HamptonPainting for Color &Shibori for Structure

Jane DunnewoldPlay Day: Wax Crayons

and Pastes

Kerr GrabowskiDeconstructed Screen Printing

Brecia Kralovic-LoganCreative Silk Textures

Susan-Louise MoyerResistad and Line: An

Element of Design

Suzanne PunchAbstract Painting on Silk

Diane RicksMicrowave Dyeing &

Sewing a Silk Top

Carter SmithShibori & Bias Sewing

Deborah YounglaoDecisions, Decisions...

Cheri ReckersFreestyle Silk Painting

Bunny BowenIntroduction to Rozome

Irma Braun-HamptonPainting for Color &Shibori for Structure

Jane DunnewoldPlay Day: Wax Crayons

and Pastes

Kerr GrabowskiDeconstructed Screen Printing

Brecia Kralovic-LoganCreative Silk Textures

Susan-Louise MoyerResistad and Line: An

Element of Design

Suzanne PunchAbstract Painting on Silk

Diane RicksMicrowave Dyeing &

Sewing a Silk Top

Carter SmithShibori & Bias Sewing

Deborah YounglaoDecisions, Decisions...

Cheri ReckersFreestyle Silk Painting

Julie Cox-HammBigger is Better

DoshiShibori

Jane DunnewoldOdd Bedfellows

Kayla KenningtonFashion Design

Brecia Kralovic-LoganKnitting with Silk Fabric

Jan JanasFace to Face with Stencils

Diane LawrenceSilk Skies

and Landscapes

Suzanne PunchColor Vibrancy

Margriet SeinenAnatomy of a Still Life

Suzanne VisorMake a Silk PurseOut of a Sow’s Ear

M. Petty & B. MatthewsSurface Design on

Silk Garments

Julie Cox-HammBigger is Better

DoshiShibori

Jane DunnewoldOdd Bedfellows

Kayla KenningtonFashion Design

Brecia Kralovic-LoganKnitting with Silk Fabric

Jan JanasFace to Face with Stencils

Diane LawrenceSilk Skies

and Landscapes

Suzanne PunchColor Vibrancy

Margriet SeinenAnatomy of a Still Life

Suzanne VisorMake a Silk PurseOut of a Sow’s Ear

M. Petty & B. MatthewsSurface Design on

Silk Garments

Liena DieckEco-friendly Painting with Dyes on Multilayered Silk

Liena DieckEco-friendly Painting with Dyes on Multilayered Silk

MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY

CANCELLED CANCELLED


SPIN Chapter NewsWith the assistance and

vigorous efforts of Chapter Chair, Suzanne Knight, five

new SPIN Chapters were started in 2013. These new chapters are:

Queen City Silk PaintersPresident Elizabeth Cahill

New York City ChapterPresident Gloria Lanza-Bajo

Middle-East Art & Silk Painters (MAPS)

President Rashmi Agarwal (Qatar)South Lake Tahoe ChapterPresident Addie Chernus

Oklahoma City ChapterPresident Cecelia Hussein

If you see a Chapter close to you that you might like to join, feel free to contact that Chapter’s President.

Presently, all Chapters are busy silk quilting for the Chapter Quilt Show at the SPIN “Threads of Silk” Festival

in Santa Fe this summer. There are at least 16 Chapters that have promised to provide a Quilt for Chapter night.

There are also potential new Chap-ters in Honolulu, Wisconsin, Isle of Mann and New Delhi, India.

Again, if you live in these areas and want to join a Chapter, contact Su-zanne Knight for details on who might be spearheading the start of these new Chapters. Find information on the Chapters, including contact informa-tion at silkpainters.org/chapters.php.

The mission of Silk Painters International (SPIN) is to support and encourage the professional development of silk artists, as well as to promote worldwide appreciation and recognition of silk art. Our organization has grown to nearly 475 members since the beginning of this year and since 1997, we have been able to continu-

ously accomplish this with the help of volunteers. An organization like ours cannot exist without the commitment of volunteers to fulfill our mission. We have been host to biennial festivals since 1998. We have published a quar-terly magazine/newsletter. We have provided members with opportunities for learning and networking. All that we have accomplished would not have been possible without our dedicated volunteers, who have committed both their time and talents to help us achieve our goals.

Joyce Estes, our president, reminds us that “what we need now is more talent to continue to fulfill our mission. I love seeing a mission accomplished and the harder the mission, the better, but it takes people who want to ac-complish the same goal. As president, the tasks don’t fall to just me. We need to act as a group, sharing the goals and accomplishments of the entire organization. It takes a team with everyone knowing what their job is and doing it. The president is the captain of the ship; without the sailors and crew they would go nowhere. We’ve come a long way with our current SPIN team who has done a masterful job in setting goals and doing their jobs. We now need more people stepping up to continue meeting our goal of promoting silk art to the world.”

Kaki Steward, Vice President of the Board and coordinator of the 2014 Festival, said, “I volunteer for SPIN be-cause the more I give of my energy, ideas and talents the more enriched I am by others.”

Call For Volunteers!“The miracle is this: the more we share, the more we have.” - Leonard Nimoy


WebmasterThe role of any webmaster is to keep the website running seam-lessly, ensuring that the content on the site is understandable and easy to access. Because the new website operates on a “what you see is what you get” program, minimal technical skills are required. You don’t need to know html. We currently have a group of volunteers who collaboratively work on the website when necessary. What we need is someone who will oversee the entire collection of websites – the main site, the magazine site and the festival site. This person will work with other volunteers to be sure the website is performing at its peak. Experience with website development is good, but not required. Training can be offered. Good technical thinking skills, along with artistic layout and design skills, are a plus.

Marketing/Public RelationsExperience in marketing and public relations is needed, to pro-mote Silk Painters International to our various publics. We need someone to create a marketing and public relations strategy for our growth over the next five years.

Financial Director We are looking for someone who has familiarity with budgets and planning in order to manage the fiscal growth of the orga-nization. Basic accounting skills are required. Experience with Excel or another spreadsheet program is a plus.

Silkworm WritersWould you like to explore your writing skills? We are always looking for good writers, so don’t worry if you don’t have a topic. We have topics and will assign according to your interests. If you or someone you know is interested, contact the Editor.

Silkworm Website EditorWe would like to develop the Silkworm website. Right now, it is a great repository for stories from the magazine. However, we

would like to further develop our online presence. If you have a vision for what the Silkworm website can be, we need you. You would work in tandem with the Print Editor.

Silkworm Ad Sales and MarketingDo you have publishing experience? This person will work with the editor to formulate a marketing plan for the magazine only. This position can be combined with the Marketing/Public Relations position or it can stand alone. If you have any ideas and know how to develop a marketing strategy, contact the Editor.

Silkworm CirculationDo you have experience with getting periodicals out to the public – newsstands, bookstores, direct market-ing, etc.? We need someone to find locations to sell the magazine (universities, libraries, craft stores, etc.). It is possible for this position to be combined with the Silkworm Ad Sales and Marketing position.

Board Members Do you have an interest in serving on our board for a term of four years? Any of the above skills is an asset to being a board member.

If you are interested in helping SPIN grow, please contact Joyce Estes at:

[email protected]

If you are interested in Silkworm positions, please contact Tunizia at:[email protected]

Art Credit: San Diego Silk Guild’s Quilt for the Chapter Quilt show in Santa Fe.

Positions available this year:

Those who currently volunteer find satisfaction in networking with their art colleagues and being part of a professional orga-nization that has a real purpose and, as our membership chairperson Gloria Lanza-Bajo said, “I have the personal satisfaction of knowing that I am giving back for all the gifts I’ve personally received in my life.”


Linda Bolhuis’ Thousand Words

“A picture is worth one thou-sand words” is a common phrase usually used for

pieces of photography. Of course a photo can conjure

thoughts and bring back specific memories. It can remind you of how you felt during that time, but can it make you feel things you never have or force you to look at the world from a different perspective? Can it make you nostalgic for a place you have never been?

Maybe it can, but for me this only happens with paintings. “I found I could say things with colors and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for,” said Georgia O’Keeffe.

I did not have much experience with silk painting, but the more I learned about it, the more captivated I became. Art, in general, is amazing to me. To be able to capture a mo-ment in time with paint and canvas is simply wonderful and something of which I wish I was capable. Since I am not artistically talented, I use my eyes to explore the artwork done by people like Linda Bolhuis and Georgia O’Keeffe.

I am entranced by O’Keeffe’s paint-ings and her interpretation of nature, but it was while looking at Linda’s mesmerizing silk paintings that I was genuinely awestruck. It is for this reason that I can see some likenesses between the two. Linda has a similar response and reaction to nature, but uses the exquisiteness of silk painting to express it.

As I was perusing through Linda’s gallery of artwork, I can honestly say there were a few moments I forgot to breathe because I was so absorbed in her work. The way the dyes interact with the silk give a glossy, natural ap-peal that make the images look so real.

Every two years SPIN hosts a confer-ence for silk painters. This year, just as in the last few, the festival Silk in Santa Fe: Threads of Silk is taking place in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This festival is more than a meeting. It is a time for silk painters to gather together, learn more about their craft, listen to lectures and show off their work.

It will be host to twenty-four work-shops led by talented silk artists, including Brecia Kralovic-Logan and Suzanne Punch.

There will also be a fabulous art exhibit entitled Seasons of Silk, a quilt show and, to cap off the wonderful week, a fashion show called Chang-ing Elements. Running from July 26 to August 1, 2014, this festival has so many fantastic events, lectures and of course souvenirs to offer.

For each biennial conference there is an exciting image contest in which the winning image represents the festival itself. This year SPIN is ecstatic to have Linda’s image, With All Due Respect, as the face of the festival. Contestants were asked to submit a silk painting that they felt best encapsulated Silk in Santa Fe. Seventeen women entered this contest and all submitted such beautiful pieces, but it was Linda’s that stole the show.

By Ashley Nichols


When most people think of Santa Fe, New Mexico, the first things that come to mind are deserts, sun-dried bones and maybe the Spanish or Na-tive cultures. However, Linda thought of something a little different. Santa Fe is a place of rich history – being that it was home to Georgia – and of course natural beauty.

For both Georgia and Linda, nature is the source of their art. It provided O’Keeffe with emotional responses that could only be conveyed with paint and canvas. It provides Linda with an inspiring view that can be expressed with dyes and silk painting, because of

its ability to convey reflective surfaces very well.

On her website, Linda says that “the breathtaking moments found in the natural land and waterscapes around [her] have become [her] conversa-tion with the world.” She is using art, specifically silk painting, as her means of expression, conversation and joy. Anyone can appreciate the endless splendors that nature has to offer, but few are able to use art to express their interaction with it.

Her spectacular piece, With All Due Respect, is more than a simple representation of Santa Fe. It digs

into that rich history and pulls together highlights of O’Keeffe’s artistic collec-tions. Linda created this artwork as homage to O’Keeffe.

In a state-ment about the piece she says: “after reading about her life I felt a strong connection to her and her love of nature.”

O’Keeffe was a leader for women artists dur-ing the early 1900s and re-ally opened the gateway that forced the art world to take them seriously. She began by painting abstract pieces, but through-out her life she

ventured to flowers, landscapes, bones and much more. Linda “borrowed” from some of these categories to cre-ate With All Due Respect. “The hardest and most enjoyable part of creating [the piece] was spending time looking at O’Keeffe paintings and finding the ones that resonated the most with me,” Linda said.

Linda created With All Due Respect a couple of years ago using the French Serti technique of painting on silk. For those who are unfamiliar with this, it is a technique that uses a “resist” called gutta for the outline of a draw-ing. The gutta will enclose the silk dye, to keep it from bleeding, and uses dye layering to create the image. It is just a nice way of “coloring within the lines” of a silk painting.

“Although very time consuming, the medium lends itself extremely well to capturing the shifting qualities of light found in nature,” Linda said. Using this technique, With All Due Respect took her several weeks to complete, after a month or so of research. But its honor of Georgia O’Keeffe will last much longer.

This piece contains no message, but rather it is a representation of O’Keeffe and her work. “For me it was a per-sonal exploration of subjects we both loved and it was an opportunity, or excuse, to spend time with Georgia,” Linda said of her piece.

Linda was introduced to the spectac-ular world of silk painting by her dear friend, Denise. Her “girlfriend learned it on a Club Med trip in the Domini-can Republic and shared her knowl-edge. Her husband learned windsurf-ing and she learned silk painting.”

Vacations usually offer tacky sou-venirs and sunburns, but for Linda’s friend it was the beginning of an ar-tistic genesis. Together, Linda and her friend began a small company based on their silk paintings. Although it did not last long, due to the economy, their experience and love for silk painting only grew. Because Linda has


a degree in graphic design she is able to use those learned drawing skills to create delicate designs for silk paint-ings. Entranced with the beauty of the silk painting process, Linda continued to grow her skill and love for it.

Twenty-five years after her first encounter, Linda is still involved with the illustriously elegant art of silk painting. Now, at the young age of sixty-nine she is doing what she loves, teaching what she loves and grow-ing her aspirations of continuing silk painting in her later life. Residing in the picturesque village of Topanga, in California, she participates in open studio tours at Topanga Canyon Gal-lery (which is a co-op studio).

In her own home, she continues painting and teaching her craft to eager students. “It’s fun to share the process and get people excited about it,” Linda said.

She is a very accomplished and talented artist, but still has goals she would like to achieve. Like most indi-viduals, Linda looks at the future and sees a life full of exploration, nature-filled memories in the hope of relax-ing in art.

It is great to be an expert in one’s craft, but Linda sees the importance of expanding her skills and gaining exposure to other methods. “I would like to push myself a bit to put more of myself into the finished pieces.” In her future explorations, she would also like to take more time and allow the pieces to “speak back” to her. This time of reflection and silence with the finished painting gives her inspiration and clarity for what she should do next.

Of course, a life without traveling would be dull and so she has made plans to travel with her partner, Rod, in a truck-camper. “My hope is that I will have more time to record our journeys in the form of travel sketch-es.”

With her eyes set on the future, Linda is more than excited to return to

All Due Respect in mind, because it is more than homage to Georgia, it is the face of the festival and a reminder of what is to come.

Post Script – Linda has organized a show for silk painters. She is a regu-lar at the Shidoni Gallery in Tesuque, New Mexico. Located about 15 min-utes north of Santa Fe (on the same road that leads to O’Keefe’s Abiquiu house), Shidoni welcomes the addi-tion of more silk painting to its fine gallery. See the SPIN website under the Exhibits tab for details.

Visit Linda’s website at lindabolhuis.com.

SPIN’s biennial festival this year. “The 2012 Silk Conference in Santa Fe was my first,” she said. “To finally meet, in person, all of the great mentors in this organization was incredible.” To be able to gather together with people who share similar interests is an awe-some experience. This year’s festival will be nothing less.

Linda sees silk painting as more than a gorgeous technique of art, but also as a way of connecting with people who feel exactly as she does. That is what Silk in Santa Fe is all about, meeting fellow silk painters, learning to sharpen one’s artistry and to simply enjoy the wonders of silk painting, together.

With longing, excitement and an-ticipation, she wants to tell her fellow SPIN members this: “I am extremely grateful to all who have given so much of their volunteer time to organizing the conference; you guys are the best!”

So, with the 2014 Silk in Santa Fe on the horizon, just remember what it means to be a member of SPIN. Each of you is a thread of silk that when woven together, creates this mag-nificently beauti-ful organization. Without each of you, this confer-ence would not be as complete.

Like Georgia O’Keeffe and Linda Bolhuis, each member is a vibrant colorin a breathtak-ing silk painting. As you patiently wait for the con-ference date to arrive, just keep Linda’s With

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Kerr GrabowskiMaker of Beautiful Things

I had been reading about Kerr Grabowski for quite some time. I’ve been looking at the clothing

on her website and hearing the com-ments of her students about the great work she does and how much fun her classes are. Kerr will be teaching at Silk in Santa Fe this July and I caught up with her to ask her a few questions about her work.

Fiber artist, or a surface designer, Kerr considers herself to be a maker. “I really am a maker. A mark maker or a clothing maker or a maker of stuff.” And she loves making marks. “The thing that fascinates me is a mark, the residue of an action.”

What kind of mark? “It can be a smear made by a dirty finger, lines from a dye filled syringe, bird prints in the sand, insect eaten leaves and bark. I like the ones that are made almost by a life process.”

How does a mark maker learn her craft? Did she start with a formal art background? Does she have advanced degrees in art? Or did she start as a hobbyist? How did she learn to do this kind of work?

Kerr answered easily, “I’ve always drawn. My degree is in art – drawing, printmaking. “Essentially self-taught as a surface designer, I learned every-thing I knew, in the beginning, from Dona Meilach’s book Contemporary Batik and Tie-Dye (published in 1973). As a hobby, I did batik t-shirts for friends.”

Then she got divorced and needed a way to support herself and her six-year-old daughter. “I was too shy to

think of having any kind of job around people and wanted a way to be home for my daughter. A friend suggested that I sell my little t-shirts at craft shows so I figured, okay, I’ll do the t-shirts and craft shows. Someone said, ‘oh you should do skirts.’ So I made skirts. Then they said, ‘you ought to put pockets in them.’ People just suggested things, all the way. This was all cotton, all in the South. Eventually I started working with silk and de-veloped the work that I do now.”

Warm and fun-ny, Kerr hails originally from Missis-sippi. Much of the fiber arts scene in America happened on the West Coast in the ‘60s. Despite this, Kerr was having a good experience with selling her batik clothing. I asked her about selling her work in the South, where it was probably not quite as popular.

“The South was and is very recep-tive to craft but to make a living I also traveled,” she said. “I participated in the American Crafts Council shows, the Smithsonian Craft Show and the

Philadelphia Museum Craft Show. In the beginning, I had a ‘58 Volkswagen Van that would let me go about five hours before it broke. So I had a five-hour radius,” laughing, Kerr stated. “Then, in ‘84 I bought a brand new van that allowed me to travel to the more lucrative shows in the North-east.”

Yet, she found sources of inspira-tion in her surroundings. “I’m very thankful that I started here in Missis-sippi, a state with a rich narrative oral, musical, and visual culture, and was

By Tunizia Abdur-Raheem


not heavily influenced by what was going on in the west coast. I devel-oped a strong personal narrative style very much influenced by my southern roots.”

Digging a little deeper, I queried her about her original impulse – what made her decide that she wanted to print cloth, coming from this art and printmaking background? What moved her from paper to cloth?

Her impulse was born of practicality. “I was a single mother and I thought that working at home would be such a great idea. All my friends were artists and craft was a no-no. I was the only person I knew doing something func-tional. I kept pretending that I didn’t like it. As I played and experimented with fabric and dye, I learned how to make the type of mark that comes from my soul. My initial plan of aban-doning fabric as soon as my daughter graduated from college was happily abandoned. I fell in love with dyes, their possibilities and limitations”

She broached this seeming age old dispute – the difference between art and craft – craft being functional or useful. Which would seem to make art . . . useless? It seems that art, any kind of art, can touch the soul. In a world that often needs acknowledg-ment of the soul, art would seem to be functional and therefore useful.

“I feel that I work both as artist and craftswoman, depending on what I am doing at the time. Both feed the soul and ask questions of the maker and the viewer.”

With craft possibly being functional and Kerr being practical, did she start out with function in mind? Being a single mom, was she printing things for her daughter and herself as a way to make clothing and save money?

“I’ve always sewn. I started sew-ing in the fifth grade, making things for my Barbie doll. My mother gave me access to the sewing machine – didn’t show me how to use it, but she showed me the machine and the book.

I painted fabric and made clothing for my daughter because I love the mak-ing, not to save money. Once I began creating batik clothing for a living, I quit making my own. It’s kind of like the plumber and the broken pipe syndrome.”

As far as the batik clothing, it was a business, run like any other business, for profit. I hired seamstresses and people to help me do the batik.”

I asked her if she paints cloth for framing or hanging on walls or if she is mostly making clothing? She is doing both, returning to her roots and doing some drawing, on cloth and paper, but loves the clothing. “I’ve fallen in love with the sharing aspect that comes with the clothing. I love to watch women go through the thought processes of choosing the perfect garment for themselves. They usu-

ally know exactly which piece works. When they put the garment on, magic happens, both the wearer and the garment are complete. In the design part of my work, I try to leave room for that magic, for the garment to be completed by the future wearer.

When I paint a fabric, when I’m painting three or four yards at a time, I am a painter. I don’t say, well this part of the fabric is going to be this, that is going to be that. I am paint-ing, period. It has no end goal in sight other than I know that ultimately, no matter how much I love it, I’m going to cut it up and make it into some-thing that suits a human body. I love that. That fills a need – whatever that part of my creative need is.

“It changed the way my ego dealt with all of it. I didn’t have to have an ego to justify what I was doing


because what I’m doing is actually sharing with another person, who-ever buys the piece. I’m going to cut it up, whatever I paint, so it can’t be that precious, no matter how long I work on it. I like what that did to my thought processes.” This thought pro-cess seems to create a balance in her creative process.

“After the painting is finished, the de-sign process begins. I have clear tem-plates for each garment shape which I move around the fabric, carefully choosing which parts of the fabric will be the back, the front, etc. At this point, I do consider where certain colors and designs are placed and how they will interact with a body. When I start mov-ing a template around and choosing the parts that will make up a specific gar-ment -- that suits the designer side of me. Then I start cutting. Decisions may be changed throughout any of these stages, including the sewing.

“My working methods are not at all

efficient, I have quite a bit of unused fabric after cutting and I save every inch of it. Some goes into future pieces, some is pieced to make scarves, nothing is wasted, but fabric might be around five years or more waiting for the perfect partner piece.”

About those templates - did she learn pattern making? “No, I am not a pattern maker. The kimono was and is my inspiration for many reasons. The kimono is a timeless and versatile form, a gorgeous canvas and I love the way the linings and the exterior have conversations with each other.” Quite a few of her designs are just takes on rectangular patterns. They are versa-tile and you can wrap and tie fabric so that an outfit can suit different bod-ies. She also tries to keep the patterns simple. “I like simple clothing shapes. I think they’re kinder.”

Presently, she does all the work herself, the painting, the dyeing, the cutting and the sewing. “I love to

sew. It’s medita-tive. Maybe the sewing suits the maker side. I’m not sure, but the clothing has given a balance that I find very healthy.” The painter is satis-fied, the designer is satisfied and the maker of things is sated.

Although she’s presently do-ing all the work herself, the sense of sharing is increased when there is some-one to wear the garment. “When I start making the clothing, I really try to keep it so that when

the piece is put on – when the right person wears it – the piece is finished. Whatever coloring that person has, adds to the piece, the piece adds to them and that completes the whole. To me, that’s part of the sharing.”

Shifting into the process of creating the cloth, and being almost totally ig-norant about screen printing, I asked Kerr to explain a bit about the process that she calls “deconstructed screen printing.” She replied that it is not the typical screen printing process. One of the things she likes about the fiber world is the free flow of information about such things as techniques. She speculated, “Perhaps, because it’s so female, but there’s a lot of sharing. There’s open sharing of techniques and there is a long lineage of: ‘this technique comes from this technique, this grew out of this.’ That’s how the deconstructed printing happened, I learned traditional screen printing in 1981 from Sister Remy at Arrowmont School of Craft. While I learned quite a bit, the process was too structured for me.”

Kerr credits Joy Stocksdale’s book Polychromatic Screen Printing as the base of her technique. Polychromatic involves painting dye directly on a screen, allowing it to dry and then releasing it. “In Deconstructed Print-ing, I primarily use thickened dyes. Simple textures such as leaves, rubber bands, collographs or lace are placed under the screen, the thickened dye is then pulled through the mesh as though creating a print. The dye goes in and out of the thicknesses of that texture, leaving that imprint on the screen with the dye. This is allowed to dry, then released from the screen by printing with sodium alginate, which is the thickener for the dye. The result is a series of subtly changing mono-prints.”

She also applies wax to the screen. Speaking about the class that she’ll be teaching in Santa Fe she said, “Our class is very short, but I’m going to


bring the wax anyway. I use beeswax and do rubbings on the screen over textures to create stencils/resists. I may melt wax and draw on the screen as kind of a resist or a stencil effect. I don’t use wax on the fabric anymore, but use it as a screen stencil. We can have either a very sharp line quality using the tjanting or we can do wax rubbings that have a very soft line quality. I will demo several other uses of wax during the workshop, each resulting in a different type of mark.”

Kerr uses fiber reactive dyes and was the technical advisor for part of the screen printing section for Susan Louise Moyer when she wrote Silk Painting for Fashion and Fine Art. For that project she did the screen print-ing portion and used traditional silk painting dyes. “I used either Dupont or Sennelier. As long as it’s a dye and not a paint, they all work equally well for deconstructed printing.”

For Kerr’s class in Santa Fe, she will use her dyes but will also address the silk painters’ dyes. “In the workshop we’ll work with fiber reactive MX dyes, which can be used as alkaline or acid dyes. Working with traditional silk painting dyes that work as well as the fiber reactives will be covered as well. I want people to leave the work-shop and be able to use whichever dye they are comfortable with.”

Getting back to her designing process, why does she call it decon-structed screen printing? She laughed. “It took a lot of wine to come up with that,” she laughed some more. “I had a teaching proposal due the next day and the process needed a name. Linda France and David Hartge helped. We maybe got a little too intellectual. Screen printing is a stencil process used to easily repeat an image. People use this process to get the same image over and over again. We decided that what I was doing was deconstructing the idea of what screen printing was. Deconstructed printing is not a stencil process, does not produce repeated

images and is painterly and spontane-ous, all things that traditional screen printing is not.”

Not using the stencils has made the end result more of a surprise. “You cannot repeat this look no matter how hard you try,” she intoned. She uses other materials to create texture and pattern on screens. She might also paint on top of or in between the printed designs or discharge some of the color. “I can use newspaper stencils, put them on the fabric first, put the screen on top of that and only certain parts will print. Then, I can go back into those areas that the stencil protected and do other things – draw, print, paint with dye, whatever.”

These techniques she uses are easily adaptable for silk painters who could use resist on the screen along with dye. “They could do polychromatic printing, draw on the screen with wax, paint dye in between those wax lines just like they’re painting on their fabric with gutta and get a series of monoprints that way. You get more than one print; the dye slowly leaves the screen with each print. We will also paint directly back into images that have been printed.”

I asked Kerr what fabrics she likes right now. She likes silk crepe, or-ganza and some chiffon. She also likes vintage linen for a broader variety of fabrics for printing.

For a time, Kerr lived in New Jersey. I asked her how she landed in New Jersey from Mississippi. “I’d always wanted to live in or near New York City. I was at a craft show put on by the Smithsonian Museum. The woman across from me was an artist-in-residence at Peters Valley Craft Center in New Jersey. She said they needed someone to head the fiber studio. It felt right. I never really considered myself a surface designer, I made batik cloth-ing, but I figured, okay, we can do this.”

She wasn’t really well-versed in fiber arts. However, part of her job was to hire the instructors for the depart-

ment. She began researching to make herself more knowledgeable so that she could create the curriculum. “My education in textiles really began at Peters Valley.”

Kerr mused that her life, like her artistic technique, has moved intui-tively from one phase to another. She wanted to move to the East Coast and the opportunity presented itself. “It’s kind of a life without planning, but I’m ready for whatever happens. So I was ready to go to Peters Valley. I hired teachers in all aspects of textile work – weavers, felters, people who sculpted with fabric, people who stitched, quilters, dyers, and I learned from them all.”

She was on the East Coast for 21 years, but now she’s back in Mississippi. Her work and her personal experi-ence of being an artist is evolving and developing in different ways. “I’m doing a lot of teaching and a lim-ited number of ex-hibitions. Gallery Five in Tequesta FL carries my work. I currently have a one-person show in Newcastle Australia. I prefer creating for trunk shows or exhibits to taking orders for a group of pieces.”

Although she teaches more now, she says the studio work keeps her excited. “So does the teaching, but if I wasn’t working in the studio, I’d have nothing to teach! Whatever it is I’ve learned in the


studio that I’m working on currently, that’s the direction my workshop’s going. So if I learn a new way to make a mark before I’m going to teach in Santa Fe, that method of making a mark is going to be in that class.”

She’s also doing larger wall pieces. “I’m working with the figure again. Five of us hire a model once a week and draw for two hours I’m also drawing the figure on the iPad, these images are perfect for photoscreens. Regaining a knowledge of the propor-tions of the body is exciting.

“I am not sure how or on what all of this will end up but the process certainly keeps me excited and sane. When I approach the fabric, it’s very stream of consciousness. If I have im-

ages in my head from daily drawing, the work is stronger. So I draw every day, and all of that makes its way into my work somehow.”

Kerr does see more drawing in her future and she is incorporating more of nature into her work. “In addi-tion to the human body, I’m drawing plants and seeds and that aspect of a life cycle. I actually see my work being very, very large images of seeds, sprouts and roots.”

For these, she’s working on both cloth and paper. Kerr is allow-ing herself to develop her ideas and believes that, by the time they’re finished, the images may not look like the model upon which they are based. It should be interesting to see if the

original image will be discern-ible. Sometimes a work starts one way and morphs into something else, but the observer is able to intuitively see the underlying image.

Of course, there are so many people – especial-ly women artists – painting and drawing flowers especially among silk painters. “I swore I’d never do it,” Kerr said. “I thought that I would never do that. A flower – I was so body and narrative oriented I just was never ever going to do a flower and suddenly they started appearing in everything. Real kid-like

flowers, at first. Now they’re getting a little more sophisticated, but they’re everywhere. Whatever it is, I’ll accept it because that’s what started coming out of my hand.”

Kerr has been back on the Missis-sippi Gulf coast for three years. Her previous studio was destroyed in Hur-ricane Katrina, three years ago. She purchased and rehabbed a house that had been deluged by “only two feet” of water during the storm. Katrina claimed the yard. So, she’s been plant-ing and watching her garden grow. That’s when the flowers found their way into her drawings, she says. “For nine years in New Jersey, I lived in and was influenced by a national park, then I moved to town and human interactions became a prime influ-ence. Now it’s both plants and people because they relate. They do the same things, they look pretty, they pollinate, they have babies and they die. It’s all the same.”

Wrapping up our time together, I asked if she had any advice for fellow artists. She responded immediately, “Trust your intuition. Do something every day. Make marks, write, create something. Some little ritual every day. Work every day, even if it’s only 15 minutes.” Then she altered her answer slightly. “Trust your intuition and play. It’s the main thing I teach in my class.”

With work this fine, it’s easy to see how work becomes play. If your mind is struggling to visualize the process, don’t worry. “It’s so much easier to show than it is to tell,” Kerr laughingly conceded. Perhaps this is why, instead of writing a book, she has chosen to create DVDs. Deconstructed Screen Printing For Fabric and Paper is avail-able on her website along with her other offerings.

See more at kerrgrabowski.com.


SPIN Website Receives Visual Design UpdateSPIN launched a new web-

site in approximately July of 2013. The former site, hosted

and mastered by former SPIN President, Lee Zimmerman was a delight. However, we wanted to incorporate a database manage-ment system so we redesigned the website. And, since we’re an all-volunteer organization whose members are busy painting silk, we wanted to make the site easier to use.

SPIN enlisted the services of a web designing company that specializes in designing websites for arts organizations. The web-site is designed so that someone with minimal technical skills can use the site. It’s akin to creating a document in a word processing program like Word. And once you’ve learned the basic skills for how to create these pages, if you can type and upload images, you can create web pages.

While a database management system may seem a little im-personal, it has actually had the opposite effect. It has allowed Membership to keep up with SPIN members. Membership Chairman, Gloria Lanza-Bajo, is able to tell at a glance how many members the organization has at any given mo-ment. If a member has a question, Gloria is able to access the system and find relevant information about a member.

Questions like, “Am I an active member? Has my membership

expired? When did it expire?” are now much easier to answer. This new system permits Gloria to give a great deal more personal care and attention in her responses to member questions.

We hope you are taking advantage of the new website. Here are a few of the new features.

Members Only SectionOne of the questions members

often had in the past was: “How do I meet other silk painters who may live near me?” In the new mem-ber’s only section, you can view the member’s directory. Members can choose to display as much or as little of their personal informa-tion as they like. This directory is

By Tunizia Abdur-Raheem

SPIN HOMEPAGE

MEMBERS ONLY SECTION


SPIN Website Receives Visual Design Update

only visible to members who have logged into the website. Because of the addition of this member’s directory, you can now scan the membership directory for mem-bers who may live near you. You can reach out to them, maybe even form a local chapter.

You can also add a photo of your-self (visible only to members) and also load an image of your work (viewable in the Member’s Gallery which is visible to the public).

Once you have logged into the website, you remain logged in until you log out.

Also in the Member’s Only Sec-tion is an archive of past maga-zines. Did you know that SPIN has been around for over 20 years now? The magazine dates back to the beginning of the organization, back when The Silkworm was a black and white newsletter format. All of these magazines are available free to you for your downloading, printing or reading online.

You are also in control of your own information. If you need to change your address or other con-tact information, you can. If you need to check your membership

status, that information is available online. The new database man-agement system has made it more efficient to communicate with you.

We can set up emails that we can send to you to acknowledge new memberships and renewals. To this end, it is important to have [email protected] in your email address book so you don’t miss out on any important com-munications. In fact, if you have any kind of spam-blocker set on your computer email, add silkpainters.org to the safe sites.

To access this Members Only Sec-tion, you only need to login. Passwords

were emailed to all then-current members when the site was first launched.

If you did not receive your pass-word, you can have it sent to you by clicking on “I forgot my user-name/password” on the login screen. Your login information will be e-mailed to you at the email that you provided when you origi-nally joined. If you’ve had prob-lems logging in or are still missing your login information, if you have changed emails, never had an email or don’t remember what you did

GALLERIES

FESTIVAL WEBSITE


Silkworm WebsiteThis website is still in develop-

ment. It is our hope to develop it to a full-scale useful magazine site that embellishes and enhances the offerings of the Silkworm Maga-zine.

Lastly, we must thank artist and member Deborah Younglao for of-fering images of her paintings to be used as the background images and the backdrops for all of our web-sites. We would not have been able to design such a wonderful site without her beautiful images.

Visit the website at silkpainters.org. You can reach the festival and magazine from the home page.

WikiWe have a newly redesigned sec-

tion featuring techniques and how-tos. This section was revamped by members Renee Angela Filice and Phyllis Gordon with the help of many silk painting friends and experts. When you’re looking for how-to information, don’t forget to go here first.

The Festival WebsiteThis website contains all things

festival. Go here to get all updates about Festivals, SPIN-sponsored retreats and the like. In years where there are no festivals, it will act as an archive of past festivals. Since 2014 is a festival year, visit this site for information if you have not already registered.

when you joined, please contact the Membership Chairman.

GalleriesThe new website was designed

for maximum interactivity. To that end, in addition to the Mem-bers Gallery featuring the art of members, there is also a Signature Member’s gallery featuring a few of the works of the distinguished Signature Members. There is also a gallery of Facebook friends. We have so many friends on the Face-book page – more than 2,000 – and they always have some projects happening. Some of their works will periodically be featured in this gallery. A trip through the Gallery is great for inspiration.

SILKWORM WEBSITE


Shidoni GalleryTesuque, New Mexico

June 23, 2014 - August 4th, 2014 SPIN Signature Member, Linda Bolhuis, regularly shows her work at this gallery and the owners of the gallery have graciously agreed to open this show to other silk painters. This show, to run concurrently with the SPIN Festival and Art Show, is not sponsored by SPIN but open to all SPIN members. Here are some details, but for more information, go to www.silkpainters.org/exhibits or contact the gallery directly at [email protected].

Calls for Entry

Open to all members of Silk Painters International (SPIN), as well as any silk painters who might be involved in silk painting chap-ters. This show will be hung for 6 weeks and is concurrent with the Threads of Silk Art Show so you’ll need to submit different art.

Size of Your SubmissionNo restrictions.

Subject MatterNo limit on subject matter but Shidoni retains the right to refuse art it deems offensive.

Deadline for SubmissionsMay 19, 2014

Notification of AcceptanceMay 26, 2014

Entry FeeNone, but a limit of 3 paintings per artist, please.

SPIN Festival 2014: “Threads of Silk”“Seasons of Silk” Art Exhibition “Changing Elements” Fashion Show

To be held on IAIA CampusJuly 26 - August 1, 2014

Theme: Mother Nature uses elements (earth, water, fire, air, space, metal and wood) to define her patterns,throws in some seasoning (summer, winter, spring, and fall), giv-ing her patterns a palette of color. Mother Nature was a silk painter… Pretend YOU are Mother Nature …

Deadline for submissions is May 31, 2014.

Silk Designers’ Fashion Show Santa Fe, NM

Friday, August 1, 2014 6:30pm – 8:00pm

Theme: Use “CHANGING ELEMENTS” in the creative and beautiful form of But-terflies and Summer Flowers to Fall Leaves. You may work

these elements and seasons into luscious silk garments and/or jewelry.

Deadline for submissions is Friday, June 6, 2014.

SILKWORM (ISSN 2162-8505) is the quarterly magazine of SPIN -- Silk Painters International -- a nonprofit organization of silk artists, painters, practitioners, and educators. SPIN provides its members opportunities to network with kindred spirits and to grow through workshops, conferences, juried competitions, and gallery exhibitions. Material contained in The Silkworm belongs exclusively to The Silkworm and/or the artist. Do not reprint without written permission.

SILKWORMP.O. Box 585, Eastpoint, FL 32328, USA

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