Textiles and Tea, David van Buskirk, painting stitched

Yesterday's Textiles and Tea was a whirlwind of spontaneity, the guest darting about to find and show samples of what he's taking about, here a notebook of drawing and painting ideas, 

there samples of commercial fabric he designed,

 to illustrate the constraints of textile design, which he did for many years.

Nowadays he's continuing to make art weaving, experimenting with weaving again on natural objects as he did at the outset as a student. 

He shows a sample weaving he did as preparation for the work you see designed over his right shoulder, left to us.

That enormous branch with warp threads behind him in the studio is another current wip.

He's very appreciative of the early help and encouragement he got from Swedish designer Age Faith-Ell, one of the movers and shakers of Swedish modern textile design. She was a  design powerhouse and opened opportunities for him when she saw his talent as a student.

His mother who died recently in her late nineties, was a great textile artist, largely in embroidery. 

He studied her hands on her deathbed, later incorporated her embroideries physically into a tapestry with her hands depicted. He describes it as a collaboration.

He also experiments with glass and wire, getting supplies from the hardware store, the real art supply place (!). Here wire woven with glass tiles, a tiny piece playing with the passage of light through the glass and the shadows, which take up a lot of space.

He says you really shouldn't know where you'll end up when you make a piece of art. It should be a journey which reveals itself as you go. My lifelong belief, great to see it verified!

He's an engaging person, energy personified.  His students were sending messages of thanks to him throughout the presentation. 

He took part a couple of years ago in that tapestry postcard exchange that Sarah Swett and other invited artists did. The challenge was to design and create a tapestry about your surroundings which was to be postcard size, mailed as is, not in an envelope.  Here's the card he received from his partner, depicting Mt Rainier, her view from her studio in Seattle.

Next he's teaching rigid heddle weaving in, I think, Colorado, where he now lives, having moved back to be with his mother in her last couple of years.

Check his website. He's a dynamo, endlessly interesting, and a very nice man. Not a bad trifecta.

And from the stratosphere, I invite you alllll the way back to the humble. 

My painting, now appliqued into the top which used to be a dress. More to come.