K:
You know, because I didn’t look like everybody. Finally, I was so angry about it that I started to completely cut myself off from the textile world. It was around the time when I went back to school and finished my BA.
I took about a year and one half off from weaving, at the time I was mainly weaving tapestries and they would take at least 3 months so I decided to just concentrate on papermaking until I finished school. I just stopped weaving because I had so much else to do, I was teaching and still making and casting paper and doing lots of creative stuff. But weaving just seemed like too much of a commitment at that point too dangerous.
I finished up with school in fall ’91 and decided that my thesis project would be to combine my art and my politics for the first time. I was already aware that my unconscious was playing a part of my soul. Here’s my moment.
S:
I want to know, you were aware that your unconscious was having its impact or its influence.
K:
Yeah.
S:
How did you know that just because of the choices you were making?
K:
I think it occurred over time. I think it really began to change – my whole sense of my art, when I went back to school. I went back thinking I was going to go into museum studies.
S:
I’m sorry.
K:
Excuse me?
S:
Well, Museum Studies is so different than creating your own work.
K:
Yes, but, that’s where I was going. I needed a job that would provide me with enough money to support myself and my kids. And it was the most tolerable job I could imagine. I tried many times to go take a straight job.
I just had a brand-new baby. I was still married then. And thinking, let me have the one night to go to class, and then I could be home and do my work. So, I’m taking this museum class. And it’s at an anthropology museum collection, which is what I wanted. The textiles that I’m drawn are so beautiful and so full of the broader world.
One thing I know is that the textiles in this country are very much rooted in colonial times. And I’m distinguishing the broader world from the US colonial history. And, you know, it was in during that period of time, my work was to catalogue part in the African collection. I had to handle a ritual piece from African. And as I handled this piece, and it threw me out of the room.
K:
My reaction to touching this piece was that it really threw me out of the room. And I went running down the hall, to the teacher and other students, and I was terrified. That piece that was part of a male ritual piece and no woman had any business handling this. It was the first time I met a power object, you know, I was forever scared to go back into the room.
There’s the unconscious, that’s part of my story.
During this same period, I had a farm situated on the valley floor between mountains and located North Eastern Mendocino County, Northern California. Originally, the Yuki tribe lived there – estimated at 10,000 tribal people in a valley bigger than San Francisco.
The first place we lived was seven miles beyond electricity, we used a little hydro system. And we had a generator. You know, I was in my glory. Absolutely, in my glory.
It was so incredibly spiritual there. It’s what that led me to experience what the world really was. if you empty all of energy, and just have the quiet, and then you have the rhythm, the cadence, and the natural world. The farm in the valley gave really fed me, I felt like it was precious.
By the time I’m finishing school, and doing this final project, I decided that my project would be uncovering my father’s mother’s story, because my father’s mother died when he was five years old. And her name was never spoken again. Part of him remained as the traumatized five- year old. When she disappeared, he was the oldest of four kids. This loss overshadowed his whole being.
I started with the interviews, and interviewed everyone that was still alive of which there were only a few men. There were no photographs of her. These men could only give me descriptions of her. And then I took all of that and turned it into a weaving which became my first weaving using images. I had all these images on it. As I was weaving, I watched it and saw every image, kind of disappear. It’s a totally vibrant and beautiful piece. She lived her life in a mystery.
So that’s how I began the transition.
Next, I started doing striped woven pieces. And I was making painted warps and double weave and then I would stitch these strips together. Very loosely related to Kente Cloth from Ghana and I tried to unconsciously make color changes and create poly-rhythmic patterns. These rhythms being the cadence for jazz.
S:
I am going to ask, if we can move further along in your story; What are the essential things for your students to know, that allows them to embrace their process?
K:
(The essential thing) is that I see them. And then I will help give them the tools to bring out their work.
S:
One of the things I’m struck with, is this interplay of the subconscious into fiber, and how the symbolism comes through from the sense of the storytelling, and how you’re using fiber, photography, and other things to get there, which is stunning.
K:
I truly believe that fiber has the potential of healing in such a great way. But especially anything that works with your hands allows your mind to let go. And I think that that is where the healing is.
As for teaching, I enjoy beginners, I love to help them to fall in love with weaving. At the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, I begin with a 4-harness sampler then move to a tapestry sampler, tapestry project, then pattern weaves. I talk about weight of warp and weft, different weave structures, dyeing techniques, styles of weaving around the world.
S:
Well, and it’s similar to your experiences where your family, your teachers, all who created a mentorship environment that was just for you.
K:
And that’s so powerful. It’s such a powerful thing. I think that was really lucky when I was young. And now, I can give it and I give it a lot of ways. For example, I’m on the Board of Directors of the Textile Society of America. One of the things that that I do is I use that forum to teach them, to show them all the stuff that they that they haven’t been exposed to. And I just got a major thank you for doing that. It’s means so much because, because I love this field. Yeah, I am in love with this field. I love to geek out with fiber people, its then I get to learn more about fiber history…
S:
As we close the interview, one last question: how would you assess the current trends in the textile world.
K:
My view is that the textile world continues to show a strong Euro-centrism focus and the textile artists often do not see what is going on in the rest of the world. For a long time, I have been aware of bigger art world politics and feel frustrated and at times, angry about cultural appropriation that occurs in the name of integration.
Trends and developments indicate that the world of textiles is becoming more active and more informed, and that is the hope I offer here.
One group who is asking questions is the Textile Society of America. In recent conferences (Savannah, GA 2016; Vancouver, BC, CA 2018) panels and discussions introduced ideas and stimulated discussions on racism, geography, and economics in the textile world.
Surface Design Journal comes into being in 2013 and offers a quarterly magazine of artists’ works, including those from around the world.
And a last suggestion, for serious discussions on craft, there is the Critical Craft Forum blog at www.criticalcraftforum.com.
S:
I want to thank you so much for your time.
End.