No, dear Devon, your work surely isn't "all that bad!" I'm sure it's
very good, in fact -- whatever "good" and "bad" might mean in this
context. "Good" = very modern? "Bad" = not-so-modern?
However, here comes your problem with size. We lacemakers seem to
have learned to think small, indeed to think tiny. Flower-petals; a
leaf here and there. How did that happen? When I first began making
lace, in the late nineteen-sixties, somebody informed me that lace
took a square-inch an hour to make. How many decades did it take me
to wonder what went into that square inch? The wall-hanging that I'm
about to e-mail to you is 18 inches in diameter, and occupies a place
on the wall that might well have hosted a painting.
Alas, getting a piece of lace entered in a show, even in a
prestigious show, doesn't really change the lacemaker's prospects all
that much. I say that from my own experience of resisting
disillusion. In 1988 I had a needlelace fan (my "Ortolan Pie")
exhibited for six months at the Walters Art Gallery. In 1989 my
"Irises in a Lightning Storm" took a first in the Embroiderers'
Guild's 12th Biennial, and was shown in the Liberty Gallery in
Louisville. The subsequent nine years were a nightmare in my life,
and I didn't make any lace; but after that, life and lacemaking
resumed, and included shows and publications.
But that's the point. Having your lace exhibited is not enough. What
has to change is the public conception of lace as fundamentally a
decoration for lingerie. Why do people think that a drip-drip of oily
pigment on a flat surface is so valuable? Why is it better than
thread (or wire? even gold wire?)? No doubt because it has a far
longer identification as art work. We lacemakers have to stop
thinking of our lace as auxiliary (a mat under a teacup; an edging
for a nightgown). That is going to take lots of time; lots of shows;
items in the newspaper (quick! before newspapers all vanish!); and
the courage to think of ourselves as artists. There is that empty
place on the wall to fill...
Aurelia
Do note that Jane is actually having a gallery show of her modern lace work
(Pinned in Place) which is something that we devotees of modern lace have
been hoping and waiting for, a long time. Finally, Finally, Finally!
One problem, I think is, ironically, how long it takes to make lace. You
could put all the lace I have made in my lifetime on a large sheet
of paper. It
would be pretty hard to fill a gallery. It is pretty difficult, especially if
you sell your product, to have enough at one time to show. Three cheers for
Jane. It looks like a great show.
Traveling now, into the range of dangerous thinking, I will tell you that a
group I belong to, the Textile Study Group of New York, actually rented
gallery space, and displayed the work of its members.
A postcard was produced and mailed to
people who might be interested in visiting the show. I visited the show,
although I was too intimidated to enter it. I think that, with a few
exceptions,
the people who were already established artists who regularly had shows and
who I thought would be entering, did not enter this one, leaving the field
clear for people who wanted to break into their first gallery show. Then, of
course, you can put it on your resume that you were in a show. I
have to say, in
retrospect, I am kicking myself for not even giving it a try. My work isn't
all that bad.
Devon
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