April

Today is the last day of my spring break. Even though the weather outside is not very spring-y in Northeast Ohio, I had a couple of nice days off from school. Spring break usually brings a re-invigoration of my work and I start to slow down and get some ideas. I even took some short trips to Cleveland and Pittsburgh to see some art in person.

These images are from the "Best in Fiber" show at the Center for Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh, PA. I try to visit this space each time I am out that way because they always have something interesting on display. I have really tried to keep my resolution this year of seeing more artwork face to face rather than looking at things on my phone. I want to get close to a work of art and try to figure out how it was created, and experience it with all of my 5 senses.

In Cleveland, I went to "Manet and Morisot" A show of works from Eduard Manet and his Sister and law and contemporary Berthe Morisot. I have always enjoyed Manet's point of view, mixing impressionism of the late 1800's with his progressive views on how the lower classes were treated at that time. In the show there are many pieces that Manet and Morisot worked on at the same time, showing their different lenses of the world.

Also in Cleveland is a selection of works in The Morgan's 14th Annual Juried Exhibition; A Hand of One's Own at the Morgan Paper Conservatory. My piece "Strawberry, Blueberry" was chosen to be in the show with other paper artworks from around the county. I was also asked to be part of an artists' panel discussion on Thursday, April 30th to talk about my work.

On April 7th, I was invited to be on "Textiles and Tea", which is a weekly livestreaming event hosted by the Handweavers Guild of America. I was really honored to join so many friends, professors, and famous artists who have been on the program. My interviewer Erica was really professional but also fun to talk to, and I really appreciated the feedback and questions that I received afterward.

In order to do this show and other artists talks, I have gone back and looked at images of my work from college until now, and it has been an interesting journey. I spoke to some KSU art education students last week about being a "professional artist" as well as a teacher. One of the biggest challenges I had to overcome after leaving Kent was not having a huge studio with unlimited tables and supplies to work with. Building my own studio has forced me to scale back and really think about what I want to do with each piece. In the first slide there are a lot of works that, to me, look very similar. These are pieces I created when I was still weaving and Kent State each summer. I think in a lot of ways I was just making things that I liked, but also that I thought would impress my old weaving professor. Having my own studio has really allowed me to experiment more and make things that are new and exciting. I still rely on all my training from my textiles education, but I want to branch out from that and push the boundaries of what I can do. All the pieces I created since leaving the textile studio at Kent State have connections to my early work but go in different creative directions that I am excited to continue.

The final update for this newsletter is that I got to celebrate my birthday this month! After 40, the years don't feel as "special" but 41 seems like as good a year as any. I feel more healthy and more sure of myself than I did in my 30's and hopefully that continues! Even though this year was not technically a milestone, getting to celebrate with family and friends made it special for me. A lot of birthdays in my family fall between March and April, and my family does a great job of making each person feel good on their day.

I'll leave you with these pictures of some more Waffle Weave studies I have on the loom right now. Wool and flat cotton yarn, landscaping surveying tape, and 'hanji' paper that I made at the Morgan Paper Conservatory in 2012. Good luck with whatever projects you are working on and see you soon!

-Stephen Tornero