the weaving place (2008/9)
acrylic looms, cotton/wool/various yarns, Kai Althoff’s interior
the Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada

Upon the invitation of Kai Althoff, who had produced the instructional illustrations for my looms (included in my Master’s Thesis) I set up this ‘weaving place’ at the Vancouver Art Gallery, with six weaving stations and a group of vollunteers that I trained to help museum visitors weave blankets. Over three months, thousands of participants produced 15 blankets together, which were given to a local women’s shelter.

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Blanket Barter (2008)
wool, corkboard, commerce
Tartine Bakery, SF

For my first solo show in San Francisco I produced five large beautiful wool blankets and offered to barter them for goods and services. My bulletin board received many interesting offers and comments at the end, and I traded the blankets for food, tailoring services, yarn, one month’s rent, and two month’s student loan payments.

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Craft Magazine Feature (2008)
enthusiasm, collaboration, publication
Craft Magazine

While being interviewed for an article for this hip, contemporary, project magazine, I suggested an insertable version of a paper loom I had been developing. This led to an instructional article and loom design I produced for the magazine, distributed to thousands. And I was the first man on the cover of the magazine, ever.

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Tie-Dye Flag Workshop (2008)
cloth, dye, string, enthusiasm
Museum of Craft and Folk Art, SF CA

Participants in this day-long craft session on July 4th at the Museum learned simple traditional japanese shibori (tie-dye) techniques and designed and produced their own flags, which we hung to dry and proudly saluted, collectively at day’s end.

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Hand Made Jeans (2008)
cotton, indigo, collaboration
Roy’s, Oakland CA

Roy Slaper is a workwear dude and machinist who makes jeans. I dyed and wove enough indigo cloth for two pair of jeans which he meticulously constructed and we wore together at his gallery/custom jeans shop during Oakland’s ‘Art Murmur’.

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Performance Art Weaving (2008)
cotton, wool, laser cut acrylic/plywood loom, enthusiasm
Slaughterhouse Space, Healdsburg CA

At this Inaugural performance art show in a ‘raw space’ in California’s wine country I wove between performances, from the audience seating, from a built-in ceiling fixture.

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California College of the Arts MFA Show  (2008)
cotton, wool, laser cut acrylic & cardboard looms, enthusiasm
CCA Campus, San Francisco

This installation incorporated more laser cut looms with instructional illustrations and materials. Also 5 blankets were hung for certain named persons to collect from the gallery, and copies of my Master’s Thesis were posted and available to take from a pile of nearly 1,300.

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Los Gatos Art Docents Elementary School Visits (2008)
cotton, laser cut acrylic loom, brought materials enthusiasm
Various Elementary Schools, Los Gatos

I brought my large laser loom to 5 different elementary schools and gave 20-minute demonstrations and q & a sessions to all classes. Students were invited to bring ‘flexible material’ which I wove into the pieces, which were retained by the schools and mounted prominently.

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21st Annual Barclay Simpson Award Recipients Group Show (2008)
wool, cotton, laser cut cardboard looms, participation
CCA Galleries, Oakland

I brought and set up my small cardboard looms at this group show honoring those who received the Barclay Simpson Grant at California College of the Arts, as well as a length of completed wool cloth that would be cut into five ‘gift blankets’ to be given away at the MFA show in the following months.

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