Necessity Is The Mother of Collaboration

Emily Popp and Leo Hain

Through a series of five textile art and fashion collaborations with my four year old son, I examine what it means to be an artist and a parent in current times. Job loss, lack of regular childcare and a global pandemic shifted my life from one of hopeful emerging artist to that of primary care provider. I will show the process and outcomes of co-created textile work between a mother and son, including knitwear, custom pants, textile books and natural dye. Embedded within these acts of creation are greater societal questions. How do parents use domestic art practices to continue to create work in the home under the constraints of the present conditions? What happens to an artists practice under these circumstances? And as always, what do we really value in society, academia and the fine art world.

Round and Round in the Art, Craft, and Culture of Doilies

Suzann Thompson

Most doilies begin in the center. The maker knits or crochets one round at a time, finishing each before starting the next. Every round has its own pattern and contributes to the doily's overall design. Writer and artist Suzann Thompson was planning a textile art exhibit in 2016, when acquaintances started telling her about their family heirloom crochet. She sensed the beginning of a new pattern. The doilies and tablecloths they told of, were the means fors haring stories of their mothers, grandmothers, and sometimes themselves. Ms. Thompson interviewed makers and their families and photographed their heirlooms, first in her north-central Texas community, then expanding to the eastern reaches of the Texas Panhandle. The design of the art exhibit expanded, too: each wall hanging incorporated doilies or old needlework; informative panels captured the stories and photos; and one respondent, Sandi Horton of Waco, Texas, told her family doily stories in verse. The exhibit opened in 2017, and appears in towns around Texas under the names Celebrate Doilies and Texas Crochet Heritage, to this day. In an illustrated talk, Suzann Thompson weaves a story of doily art, craft, and culture, family legends,pride in family accomplishments, and how needlecraft helped people cope with disability and anxiety. She relates important points of doily etiquette, and how doilies might make one feel better about worn furniture and simple meals. Finally, she tells how doilies may fit into the pattern of our lives now, and going forward.