Surface Design Journal Winter 2004

Editorial

Once in a while an issue is tagged with a theme that prompts consultation with a dictionary. Impact? Its first definition is "the striking of one body against another; a collision." Given the pliable nature of textiles, we bypassed that, moving on to "the effect of one thing upon another." That inspired the question: where does textile art intersect with and influence "an other" -the world beyond its own self-defined parameters?

We looked for textile artists who had reached out beyond their studios toward the world at large. That is, artists who were bringing a textile presence into situations where it had not yet been comfortably established. In contemporary parlance, we sought artists who are working "outside the box." That implies the risk of testing new markets and relationships, perhaps redefining oneself in terms of an unfamiliar realm of experience. Or it can mean providing a bridge between parts of the textile universe that ordinarily do not overlap.

The timing seemed serendipitous, in that we were able to include Leesa Hubbell's summation of events at last June's "Hands On" conference in Kansas City. Starting with the summer of 1997, when the energy of SDA's conference at the University of Kansas spilled over into the Kansas City galleries, this was the third consecutive SDA gathering to have impacted on the Kansas City art scene. (Despite the despair of some grammarians, "impact" now is functioning as a verb as well as a noun.)

One thing that became apparent when articles were gathered is that moving out of the box can lead to the empowerment of others. For example, Hilary Gifford's article tells of numerous artists applying their skills to designing commercial fabrics for quiltmakers to reinterpret for their own artistic purposes.

In a more directly collaborative way, a studio like Dye-Namix fills the gap between a designer's idea for a textile surface and its realization. While seeking to break through the "painted canvas ceiling" that holds textiles apart from the mainstream art world, Marilyn Henrion guides other artists toward planning their careers. With boundless enthusiasm and conviction that surface design can change the world, Michelle Newman not only shares trade secrets in her new book on fabric painting, but also assists people in survival situations to access their creative resources. A quilt by Sally Dillon, our "Informed Source," visually documents a New England textile industry, the subject of a communal research project, and thereby enhances the impact of recovered history.

The path of architectural commissions may seem a more conventional way to place textiles in the world. However, as Ian Wilson points out in his article on Ptolemy Mann, to combine the lushness of color with a minimal aesthetic is to depart from a canonical approach to art theory.

Enough said.                    

-- Patricia Malarcher