For those of you who were
not able to hear Suzann Thompson’s inspiring presentation at Evening of
Excellence at the CGOA conference in Portland last July, I have an exciting
update about her exhibit's sucess!
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| Suzann Thompson, Fiber Artist |
GBK: Since 2016, Celebrate Doilies has had tremendous success having been exhibited in 9 venues. What was your original goal for curating this exhibit?
Suzann: The original goal was to
exhibit my own doily-inspired artwork, but the idea quickly grew to include
stories and photos of doily crocheters’ work. Time and research went into the
exhibit's development; and I wanted to spin all the seemingly unrelated threads
into a strong theme. An art trend today is for artists to include the community
in their work. I involved families and community by talking to them about their
heirloom doilies.
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| Sweet Home by SuzannThompson |
GBK: Have experiences at your exhibit
venues changed or evolved your goals over time?
Suzann: My understanding of Celebrate
Doilies has changed a lot since it debuted. Instead of concentrating
exclusively on wall hangings and doily heritage posters, I now think in terms
of reaching as many people as possible and involving them in the Celebrate
Doilies experience. Meeting Sandi Horton, an ekphrastic (1) poet, at an arts
conference in 2016 set me on that path. The exhibit includes fifteen of her
poems.
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| Constant Comet by SuzannThompson |
Omega Point
by Sandi Horton
Creative crochet comets are building blocks
Manipulating matter to create new life
Transforming original doilies
To become a unified display
A supernova trades its original life
To become a neutron star
Death and life stitched together
Like gamma ray bursts of power
The quantum explosion art gives
A powerful pulse to our hearts
Like a small Magellanic Cloud
We have a new companion
Full of energy soaring our way
With unique beauty in
Our transitory life
Look up and behold the stars
We can’t predict
The final fate of physics
When our stars collide
In the Omega point
In the Omega point
Sandi and I present programs at the venues that display our exhibit. I talk about doilies from various perspectives; and Sandi reads poems and plays native flute music. Participants have complimented us on the depth of the Celebrate Doilies experience, commenting that they like the combination of visual art, history, music, poetry, and practical prose.
Suzann: First, the perspective of how doilies connect people across generations and distance. Many have told me that they know their grandmother crocheted doilies, and they feel pride from displaying them at home. Other connections are more subconscious. One lady told me she found that connection quite by accident! She had crocheted a doily from a vintage pattern and then received a package from her dad with a doily her grandmother had crocheted from exactly the same pattern!
Doilies also connect us to the land, or to where we live. Another lady told me she saved string from chicken feed sacks to crochet a doily--raising chickens was her job on the farm. Most doilies are made with cotton, and they form a connection between families, generations, and the land where farmers grow cotton.
We know that once a doily's maker passes out of living memory, her crochet work can become anonymous in an estate sale. I talk about the anonymity of crocheters, and I explain how we can avoid that fate by at least documenting the doilies we know about, for future generations. I share ideas for how others can preserve and use their doilies in creative ways like displaying them or incorporating them into craft projects.
And for people who have lots of doilies hidden away in drawers and cupboards, I have a presentation that tells what to do with all those doilies; such as ways to display them temporarily or permanently and how to incorporate them into craft projects.
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| Raspberry Chocolate Roses by Suzann Thompson |
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| Baling Twine by Suzannn Thompson at the Jung Center |
Suzann: The exhibit's success enabled me to win a grant to explore crocheted connections in my home state. In May 2019, I'll be setting out to the Texas Panhandle to talk to people about the doilies they have made or inherited. I plan to stop by county museums and antique shops, to get a feel for the history of the area and the land. The result will be a traveling exhibit, Texas Crochet Heritage. of 45 doily heritage panels.
My nonprofit partner in the grant is the Texas Lakes Trail Region, which promotes heritage tourism. Beginning in January 2020, Texas Crochet Heritage will be available to tour historic homes, living history museums, etc. My favorite part of receiving the grant was knowing that someone thought crochet heritage was important enough to fund its study. This fills me with hope for the future study of needlework's place in our society, past and present. While all this is going on, the original Celebrate Doilies exhibit is still available to travel to venues that are within reasonable driving distance of Comanche County, Texas.
Not everyone is interested or able to create quilts using crochet embellishments, to curate exhibits all over Texas, to collaborate with a poet to deepen the exhibit’s impact; or to receive grants to spread the mission far and wide! No matter; the impact that Suzann has had on collectors, families with heartfelt memories, and crocheters will ensure a lasting effect; she is spreading the message that when it comes to crochet, there is so much good to be proud of!
GBK: Stay tuned ~ Suzann plans to round out the exhibit experience even more with short videos and interactive doily displays in the near future
My original post, CelebrateDoilies: An Interview with Suzann Thompson, was written on 6.17.16,
Comments
My daughter and I are hanging the Celebrate Doilies exhibit on Saturday morning--exciting times!