Thursday, January 2, 2013
In 2011, Marcia Young parlayed her passion for fiber into the challenge of filling the vacuum left by the demise of
Fiberarts Magazine. With Interweave Press' decision to stop publishing
Fiberarts, a long-standing and excellent publication, we were left with a very sad void
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Marcia created a new and exciting product,
Fiber Art Now magazine. I'd say, clearly she has accomplished her goal: "We connect and inspire the contemporary fiber arts and textiles community by featuring the most compelling work, ideas, and craftsmanship in all of our endeavors."
I am honored to have been asked to write an article for the current (Winter 2013)issue. I wrote about my conversation with 5 of the artists, chosen by Marcia, from my book,
The Fine Art of Crochet. It was a great holiday present when the magazine arrived with my article the day after Christmas!
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| Fiber Art Now magazine |
The magazine, in general, is filled with rich color images, interesting and unique layout and awe-inspiring articles on all aspects of fiber. The great job done on laying out my article by Marcia and her team is no exception. I am excited and proud to add this work to my portfolio. My book is as much about art as it is about crochet, so it is indeed an honor to be featured in this magazine that reaches out to the art world.
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Left: Tracy Krumm, "Cavity (Strainer);" right: Yvette Kaiser Smith, "Charting;" bottom: Nathan Vincent, "Locker Room" |
In "Crochet Art Art: A Conversation with 5 Free-Form Crochet Artists," we talked about 4 topics, social and collaborative art, aesthetics of crochet, history, and crochet as high art. Here are some snippets which I hope will inspire you to support art and fiber arts and the crocheters who do such incredible work; go to your nearest newsstand and purchase this issue; and comment here on your thoughts!
Social and Collaborative Art - Kathleen Holmes: "Public art harkens back to the quilting bee." Nathan Vincent: "Public art works have taken crochet to the extreme which brings it into the limelight."
Aesthetics of Crochet - Yvette Kaiser Smith: "Each material and process has its own language." Tracy Krumm: "It is amazing to see how crochet has such diverse traditions in so many different cultures."
History - Andrea Uravitch: "We need to recognize art history, but there is nothing wrong with putting a spin on it." Tracy Krumm: "Life experiences inform what we do and the possibility for transformative discovery is limitless at any age and is often very personal."
Crochet as High Art - Kathleen Holmes: "The purpose of art is to move people to change their perception of the world around them" Tracy Krumm: "We are never going to shake the utilitarian history of crochet."
My only criticism of my article is the title! Yes, the artists in the article are "free;" free-thinking and free-wheeling and do not use a pattern to create their works. However, these artists do not do "free-form crochet." It is a genre unto itself and shall serve as an exciting topic for another blog post in the near future!
Let's look back in history a bit to see from where this new magazine has evolved, My education about crochet as art came from books I collected from the 1970s, such as
Design Crochet by Mark Dittrick,
The Crocheter's Art by Del Pitt Feldman,
Creative Crochet by Nikki Hitz Edson and
A New Look at Crochet by Elyse and Mike Sommer.
Fiberarts and
Threads magazines figured heavily into my education mix as well.
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| Fiberart magazine, 1978 |
I may have a valuable gem here with this large format, vintage
Fiberarts magazine in black and white newsprint!
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| Fiberarts, Nov/Dec 2004 - Crocheter Soonran Youn on cover (not crochet though) |
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| Threads magazine, Oct/Nov 1992 - Crocheter Adrienne Cruz on cover |
From the very beginning, Fiber Art Now has been supportive of all of the aspects of fiber art. Crochet has been featured in almost every issue in one way or another. I so appreciate that. There is still much education to be done when it comes to getting the word out about crochet art. Besides my article, there were several other features on crochet in the Winter 2014 issue: Nora Fok
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| Nora Fok |
Arline Fisch: knitted bracelets with crocheted edges in a jewelry article; and Gosia Niedzwiedzka:
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| Gosia Niedzwiedzka |
No matter what kind of crochet you like to do, you are in some measure a creative artist. Crochet is so versatile and runs a very wide gamet. Crochet art is only one aspect, but a very important one. Art crochet engenders pride in we crocheters and amazes those who enjoy seeing art.
CROCHET PRIDE!! I'm starting the New Year off right and I hope you are too!. I also got a brief but thoughtful review of the book in Interweave Crochet (Winter 2014):
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