The New Art of the Loom

The New Art of the Loom: Contemporary International Tapestries exhibition, curated by Dirk Holger, now on exhibition at the Hilliard Art Museum, University of Louisiana, Lafayette, Louisiana.
The show will travel next to Gatineau’s Galerie Montcalm as one of the featured exhibitions for La Triennale Internationale des Arts Textiles en Outaouais 2013, on exhibit in Gatineau from August 29 to October 6, 2013

Below is a quote from Dirk Holger:

“Here are the first pictures of the show.  This is the best tapestry exhibition I ever did!
Enough space in-between....The opening reception was also wonderful...More later...
My best,  Dirk”

  

The Living Tapestry Workbook

We are very pleased and proud to announce that The Living Tapestry Workbook is now in its third printing and we have just received the shipment of new books. There are more colour pages in this printing and it will continue to be an excellent and inspiring book for beginning tapestry students, with clear, simple and easy-to-follow instructions.

Please go to our website http://moonrain.ca/TapestryWorkBook.html to find more information about The Living Tapestry Workbook.

Pictures from 14th Triennale Exhibition the Central Museum of Textiles

 

Thoma is standing outside the entrance to Waivel Castle in Cracow on May 5th. Thoma and Krystyna visited Waivel Castel and saw tapestries in the Story of Noah series, part of the famous 16th century tapestry collection belonging to King Sigismund Auguste of Poland.

After the vernissage, Thoma and Helga Berry quietly look at the works in the 14th Triennale Exhibition the Central Museum of Textiles, Lodz, May 6, 2013.

 

A beautiful tapestry by Polish tapestry artist Wlodzimierz Cygan

 

 

 

At the May 6th vernissage at the Central Museum of Textiles in Lodz, on the left is Professor Ewa Latkowska-Zychska, of the Textile and Fashion Faculty of the Strzeminski Academy of Art in Lodz,  a member of the jury of the 14th Lodz Triennial, in the centre is Thoma Ewen,  Artistic Director of Moon Rain Centre, and on the right is Carol Russell, the author of the well-loved books, “The Tapestry Handbook”, and more recently, “The Tapestry Handbook: The Next Generation”.  Carol is writing an article on the Triennale in Lodz for Fibre Arts Now Magazine,  and also researching her newest book on contemporary fibre art. Thoma’s tapestry “Offering at Spider Rock” is included in Carol’s “The Tapestry Handbook: The Next Generation”.

 

Photos by Krystyna Sadej

14th Lodz Triennale in the Central Museum of Textiles

Helga Berry, Monique Lehman, Thoma Ewen

 

 

Photo Krystyna Sadej

This picture is from the14th Lodz Triennale in the Central Museum of Textiles
Helga Berry, from Anchorage Alaska is on the left, Monique Lehman from California is in the middle and Thoma Ewen on the right.
Helga Berry was the founder and director of The International Tapestry Network called ITNET. She published an amazing journal, issues of which Thoma still has 30 years later.
This was the first time Thoma met Helga in person, though her activities were inspiring for many years.  Helga brought the international tapestry world together in the 80’s, before the American Tapestry Alliance and the Canadian Tapestry Network were formed.”
This was also the first time Thoma met Monique Lehman in person, although their works have been exhibited in WOVEN BRIDGES exhibitions in the City of Ottawa art galleries and in Almonte at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum. What a delight to travel and work with this very talented, deeply intelligent and capable artist, truly a contemporary international figure in textile art, who is at home anywhere in the world.

WOVEN BRIDGES vernissage/finnisage on May 9, 2013

Below are some images from the vernissage/finnisage for WOVEN BRIDGES

Joanna Jarecka, Curator of Muzeum Tkactwa, and  WOVEN BRIDGES artists Krystyna Sadej (Canada/Poland), Thomas Cronenberg (UK), Thoma Ewen (Canada), Monique Lehman (USA/Poland), and Ewa Bartosz Mazus (Poland)

 

 

Thomas Cronenberg, Krystyna Sadej, Director of Muzeum Tkactwa in Kamienna Gora, Barbara Stadnik, and Thoma Ewen, with Thoma’s tapestries in the background.

 

Photos by L.Janiak

Pictures from Poland

Poland was wonderful. Our Woven Bridges exhibition was part of the official Lodz Triennial catalogue.
The hospitality, warmth, graciousness, appreciation and care of the Polish people is amazing.
They love weaving and the fibre arts- I have never experienced anything like this before.
The Kamienna Gora Muzeum was so appreciative and welcoming.
Everywhere we went people were so welcoming – everyone wanted to feed us – like grandmothers.
It was just so full of love and warmth.
Moon Rain would like to express deep appreciation and thanks to Krystyna Sadej for her work in organizing this Woven Bridges exhibition.
The pictures below are of textile artists Thoma Ewen, Krystyna Sadej and Zofia Werblicka visiting Wroclow, Poland after the 14th Lodz Triennale

Thoma and Krystyna

Thoma and Krystyna

 

Thoma, Krystyna and Zofia

Thoma

 

Photos by Zofia Werblicka

 

Sky Streams Tapestry

Recently Moon Rain's Artistic Director completed a tapestry commission. Below are images of Sky Streams, a tapestry designed and woven by Thoma Ewen for an Edmonton residence

Pages updated

Please check out the Installations and Exhibition pages and shortly there will be information about the upcoming workshops. The distribution of the fridge magnets for La Triennale has been ongoing and we have received some wonderful responses.

The event opening is drawing closer

New Videos

Please check out the new videos at http://moonraincentre.blogspot.ca/p/videos.html

These were produced by Liana Voia and used with her permission. More of her interviews can be seen at
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd315lkNlFFgOfeJxKwu4Vg

Images from Woven Bridges

The Woven Bridges exhibit at Muzeum Tkactwa, the Museum of Weaving in Kamienna Gora, Poland

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Photos Ewa Bartosz Mazus

 

“Woven Bridges”

“Woven Bridges”  at  Muzeum Tkactwa, Kamienna Gora, Poland  from April 2 to May 9, 2013.

     Today tapestry can represent a remarkable beauty and a kind of textured poetry, and it can also represent three-dimensional rebellion against conventional outlooks. Woven Bridges showcases a variety of woven textile art, sharing and communicating the woven tapestry medium as contemporary fibre art”.



The Woven Bridges exhibit at Muzeum Tkactwa, the Museum of Weaving in Kamienna Gora, Poland, from April 2 to May 9, 2013 features a fibre art group with three Canadian Artists: Thoma Ewen, Krystyna Sadej, Ixchel Suarez and five invited guest-artists: Ewa Bartosz Mazus from Poland, Monique Lehman from United States, Thomas Cronenberg from Germany, Zofia Werblicka from Poland and Nicu Zeleznicov from Romania.

 Woven Bridges demonstrates the very strong connection between Canadian, American and European artists who share the same interest and love of tapestry weaving.  This exhibition comprehensively demonstrates the dynamic field of contemporary woven textile art, in which a rich variety of materials, diverse techniques and experimental forms can produce works of striking diversity and originality, combining humour and seriousness, recycling, and reflections on the nature of everyday life.

 

 

 

 

http://woven-bridges.blogspot.ca/

HAND SPINNING CLASS:
Hand-Spinning using the drop spindle and spinning wheel
Taught by 2 professional textile artists: Gabby Ewen & Claire Guérette
At Moon Rain Centre for Textile Arts in the Outaouais

Saturday and Sunday, March 23 & 24, 2013
$145 (includes an assortment of wool, hemp and silk fibres; an hardwood spindle made by
Ashford; use of hand carders, drum carder and spinning wheels)

Hand Spinning is an ancient craft that can be both a creative and meditative practice. The
results can range the rustic, sophisticated, elegant, wild and wacky (incorporating feathers,
space dyes, beaded threads, baubles, recycled materials such as newspaper and plastic
bags and anything else imaginable!). Hand spun yarns can be incorporated into felting,
knitting, weaving, embroidery, crochet and dyeing projects.
The world of spinning is so big and so much FUN to explore!
This bilingual workshop will cover the basic techniques for preparing, carding, blending,
spinning and plying a variety of animal and vegetable fibres using the drop spindle and
spinning wheel. These techniques are the basis for spinning anything your big heart and
creative mind can imagine!

For registration and more information please contact:
Gabby Ewen at Moon Rain Centre for Textile Arts in the Outaouais
819-457-9711
gabby.ewen@moonrain.ca
www.moonrain.ca

View this event on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/541944202494710/

 

 

La Triennale Internationale des Arts Textiles en Outaouais

La Triennale Internationale des Arts Textiles en Outaouais is presenting a spectrum of textile arts exhibitions in collaboration with exhibition centres throughout the Outaouais region.

 

 

 

 

• The New art of the Loom - Galerie Montcalm
August 29 to October 6, 2013

• Passe moi toi; empreinte et movement  Françoise Carré- Art-image et espace Odyssée
August 23 to October 6, 2013

• Brennan & Maffei Tapestries - Shenkman Arts Centre

August 23 to September 22, 2013

• Naked COPTIC Dancers - Mississippi Valley Textile Museum

August 13 to October 12, 2013

• A day in the life of Maggy M. - Centre d’action culturelle de la MRC de Papineau
  August 24 to October 6, 2013

• Felted Language - Trinity Art Gallery
August 22 to September 24, 2013

• Matrices - Moon Rain Centre
August 31 to October 6, 2013

• Homage to Micheline Beauchemin - Pierre-Debain
August 21 to October 13, 2013

• A Natural Phenomenon - Susan Taber Avila - Art image et espace Odyssée
August 23 to October 6, 2013

• Inner Vision - Mississippi Valley Textile Museum
August 13 to October 12, 2013

• Materia Linea - Stone School Gallery
September 13 to October 6, 2013

• Sackcloth and Silk - Art Brûlant & Impressions
September 13 to October 12, 2013

• Past and Present - Shenkman Arts Centre
August 25 to October 10, 2013

Stars above Moon Rain Centre

Here are some images of the stars above Moon Rain Centre

 

 

Photos K Ewen