Dear Catherine, I am truly grateful for the time you have spent on this. Be assured I am asking the artists for their statements about the works. It was the superficial and often misinformed treatment of lace by the mainstream press that made me wonder what it would be like if someone who actually knew about lace was to design a contemporary lace show. Having started lacemaking in the early 1970s I thought I might have a go at describing what each lace artist was doing. I donât find that there is a lot of critical commentary on lace art for me to read and absorb, so I am trying to analyze it as best I can, and to put it into a historical context of lace in the 20th and 21st centuries. I find that this is an era that tends to be skipped over in favor of highly romantic descriptions of 17th century lacemakers, or quaint cottagers at their pillows in front of rose covered dwellings. Another issue that I find I encounter when I am reading articles that have appeared about the artists in the show, in the past, is that the mere fact that they are using lacemaking technique overshadows everything else as the writer expounds on what lace is supposed to be, frilly, delicate, ultra feminine, and how this artist is at odds with that description. But almost never does the non-lace press talk about the special way the artist may be using the techniques that make it interesting. For instance I was examining Daniela Banatovaâs work the other day and noticed that she often uses a different colored worker than the passives, to create sort of a blending. Sometimes she uses a finer thread for some of the fillings to make them more faint. She uses long twisted sewings in the manner of Czech modern lace to create voids. In the early twentieth century if one wanted to have a discussion about what Picasso and Matisse were doing with their painting, one would go down to the Deux Magots and buy a cup of coffee and talk to the other people who were interested in painting. If I want to talk about lace, the place to go is Arachne. It gives me a chance to float any theories I may have and find out if they are crack pot theories before they actually appear in print. So, I am grateful for people who want to explore these topics and point out the flaws in my arguments and share ideas I havenât thought of. Devon
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