March 2015

Updates from Susie:

The Golden Gate Weavers have a small exhibit of their work at the U.C. Faculty Club. It runs through the end of March. Included are Sandy Drobny's Free Speech apron and my Oskie Bear scarves.

The Faculty Club is open to the public for visitors and for lunch. It is next to Faculty Glade and the music and optometry buildings. Take the walkway next to the Hearst Antropology Museum on upper Hearst Ave. and walk toward the center of campus. There is more information on the CNCH web site.

Next Fall, GGW will be exhibiting again at the Visitors' Center and Little Farm in Tilden Park. The exhibit will be larger and stay up longer. .......Not bad for the oldest weaving guild in California!

From Toshiko Wada ;

Exhibition: Celestial Threads

Date: Current through April 04, 2015

Location: The Asian Art Museum, Contemporary Japanese

Gallery, Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art & Culture, San

Francisco, CA, USA

Time: Open Tuesday - Sunday, opening hours are 10:00 am - 5:00 pm

The installation, Celestial Threads, showcases two wearable art

felt works entitled Aurora Borealis Ensemble and Sunset Over the

Uji River Ensemble by Jorie Johnson and a large washi paper work

by Sarah Brayer, both USA artists living for an extended period

in Kyoto.

This is a succinct installation highlighting contemporary uses of wool felt and washi techniques. The underlying historical references to the Silk Road is interesting when considering the artists location and research opportunities of special collections found at its' last depot to the East. The artists are seeking future North American and European venues for this installation.

Yoshiko Wada will be giving a workshop at the Richmond Arts Center and also making a presentation at the Textile Arts Council:

At the Richmond Arts Center:

http://shibori.org/2015/01/15/workshop-yoshiko-wada-at-richmond-arts-center-learn-about-boro/

Textile Arts Center presentation by Yoshiko Wada:

TATTERED RAGS: The Art of Boro with Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada

Saturday, March 21, 2015

10 am, Koret Auditorium, de Young Museum

This not-to-be missed lecture speaks of the art of boro, the term roughly meaning “castaway rag.” These tattered rags and the articles pieced together from them would be considered of little to no value in the past. However, to us they define a new aesthetic and meaning to an alternative creative process, e.g. darning = healing, meditative action = marking time, reuse/repair = recording history.

Ms. Wada will discuss folk textiles from Japan’s recent past, such as comforters, fisherman’s coats, lumberjack’s vests, and other everyday-wear made of plant fiber mixed with used cotton textile and dyed in indigo, and extensively patched and darned to utilize the limited resources of the regions. Its imperfect beauty possesses a power that resonates with people and points to an alternative value of “beauty” slowing coming to surface in our social consciousness.

Who better to share the story than acclaimed lecturer, author, and curator, Yoshiko I. Wada. Considered one of the most important teachers of textiles in the world, Ms. Wada single-handedly introduced the art of Japanese shibori to the West and has been producing DVDs on sustainable natural dyeing and organic colors. She is the founder of the Slow Fiber Studios and has served as a trustee for the American Craft Council, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Capp Street Project, and the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Folk Art.

Local Berkeley based weaver, Tricia Goldberg, has two tapestries in the faculty exhibition at the Richmond Arts Center. She is also teaching local workshops.

Two Upcoming workshops:

April 10 to May 15, 2015 (six Fridays): The Art of Tapestry Weaving at the Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA

May 22, 23, and 24, 2015 (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday): Tapestry: From Image To Loom , 24, 2015 at the Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino, CA

Winter Exhibitions

19th Annual The Art of Living Black The Bay Area's only annual exhibition that features regional artists of African American descent. This year, works by more than 75 artists are featured! Through Feb. 27

Yisrael K. Feldsott: Annunciating Obscurities Works from the 1970s to the present that showcase this artist's ability to push the formal potentials of disparate materials to portray the gamut of the human experience -- death, violence, and survival. Through March 7.

Richmond Art Center Faculty Show Come see unique and diverse 2D and 3D works by the Art Center's professional artist-instructors. Through March 7.

Gallery Hours:

Tuesday - Saturday, 10 am - 5 pm

Sunday, noon - 5 pm

Free + Open to the Public