silkworm

SILKWORM The Magazine of Silk Painters International

Volume 21, Issue 1, 1st Quarter 2014

Silk in Santa Fe Festival 2014

SILK IN SANTA FE 2014 MEETING LINDA BOLHUIS TIE-DYE WITH CARTER SMITH TRAVEL WITH OUR PRESIDENT Moonlight Connection by Linda Bolhuis

INSIDE

this issue April 2014

FEATURES

3 7 11

Linda Bolhuis The face of the 2014 Silk in Santa Fe Festival

Stargazers by Joyce Estes

Carter Smith

EXTRAS

Transforming fashion with tie-dye and silk

Joyce Estes

15 17 21 22

Silk in Santa Fe

Joyce shares her traveling experiences

This year’s line-up of the biennial festival

Gallery Let’s see what our members have been up to

Member Information SPIN members, keep up to date with our events

Positions Available Silkworm is seeking writing and ediitng help

Sunrise by Linda Bolhuis Silkworm, Issue 1, 2014

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From

the

Message from the President

Editor’s Desk

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Sincerely,

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Blessings,

Joyce

Tunizia Silkworm, Issue 1, 2014

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The Face o

Linda B

By Ashley

Magnolia Glow

Desert

“A picture paints a thousand words” is a common phrase usually used for pieces of photography. Of course a photo can conjure thoughts and bring back specific memories. It can remind you of how you felt during that time, but can it make you feel things you never have or force you to look at the world in a different perspective? Can it make you nostalgic for a place you have never been? Maybe it can, but for me this only happens with paintings. “I found I could say things with colors and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for,” said Georgia O’Keeffe.

I do not have much experience with silk painting, but the more I learned about it, the more captivated I became. Art, in general, is amazing to me. To be able to capture a moment in time with paint and canvas is simply wonderful and something I wish I was capable of. Since I am not artistically talented, I use my eyes to explore the artwork done by people like Linda Bolhuis and Georgia O’Keeffe. I am entranced by Georgia’s paintings and her interpretation of nature, but it was while looking at Linda’s mesmerizing silk paintings that I was genuinely awestruck. It is for this Silkworm, Issue 1, 2014

reason that I can see some likenesses between the two.

Linda has a similar response and reaction to nature, but uses the exquisiteness of silk painting to express it.

As I was perusing through Linda’s gallery of artwork, I can honestly say there were a few moments I forgot to breathe because I was so absorbed in her work. The way the dyes interact with the silk give a glossy, natural appeal that make the images look so real. When I discovered that Linda’s painting With All Due Respect had been chosen to represent this year’s Silk Painters International Silk in Santa Fe: Threads of Silk festival, I was beyond elated.

Every two years SPIN hosts a conference for all members; this year the festival Silk in Santa Fe: Threads of Silk is taking place in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This festival is more than a meeting, it is a time for silk painters to gather together, learn more about their craft, listen to lectures and show off their work. It will be host to twenty-four workshops led by talented silk artists, including Brecia Kralovic-Logan and Suzanne Punch.

There will also be a fabulous art exhibit entitled Seasons of Silk, a quilt show and, to cap off the wonderful week, 3

of the Festival

Bolhuis

y Nichols

Fog

Water Garden Jewels a fashion show called Changing Elements. Running from July 26 to August 1, 2014, this festival has so many fantastic events, lectures and of course souvenirs to offer. For each biennial conference there is an exciting image contest in which the winner represents the festival itself. This year SPIN is ecstatic to have Linda’s image, With All Due Respect, as the face of the festival.

Contestants were asked to submit a silk painting that they felt best encapsulated Silk in Santa Fe. Seventeen women entered this contest and all submitted such beautiful pieces, but it was Linda’s that stole the show.

When most people think of Santa Fe, New Mexico, the first things that come to mind are deserts, sundried bones and maybe the Spanish culture.

However, Linda thought of something a little different.

Santa Fe is a place of rich history, being that it was home to Georgia, and of course natural beauty. Georgia moved to Santa Fe in her later years and was inspired by the breathtaking scenes that nature presented her.

Each stunning sunset captivated her attention, each glistening mountain peaked her awe of nature and each sundried animal bone challenged her point of

Silkworm, Issue 1, 2014

view. She looked at Santa Fe in a way that many did not; it was her homeland of artistic inspiration and transformation. “I had never seen anything like it before, but it had fitted to me exactly,” Georgia said.

For both Georgia and Linda, nature is the source of their art. It provided Georgia with emotional responses that could only be conveyed with paint and canvas.

It provides Linda with an inspiring view that can be expressed with dyes and silk painting, because of its ability to convey reflective surfaces very well. On her website Linda says that “the breathtaking moments found in the natural land and waterscapes around [her] have become [her] conversation with the world.” She is using art, specifically silk painting, as her means of expression, conversation and joy. Anyone can appreciate the endless splendors that nature has to offer, but few are able to use art to express their interaction with it.

Her spectacular piece, With All Due Respect, is more than a simple representation of Santa Fe. It digs into that rich history and pulls together highlights of Georgia’s artistic collections. Linda created this artwork as homage to Georgia. In a statement about 4

a technique that uses a “resist” called gutta for the outline of a drawing. The gutta will enclose the silk dye, to keep it from bleeding, and uses dye layering to create the image. It is just a nice way of “coloring within the lines” of a silk painting. “Although very time consuming, the medium lends itself extremely well to capturing the shifting qualities of light found in nature,” Linda said. Using this technique, With All Due Respect took her several weeks to complete, after a month or so of research, but its honor of Georgia O’Keeffe will last much longer. This piece contains no message, but rather it is a representation of Georgia and her work.

“For me it was a personal exploration of subjects we both loved and it was an opportunity, or excuse, to spend time with Georgia,” Linda said of her piece.

Linda was introduced to the spectacular world of silk painting by her dear friend, Denise. Her “girlfriend learned it on a Club Med trip in the Dominican Republic and shared her knowledge. Her husband learned windsurfing and she learned silk painting.”

Vacations usually offer tacky souvenirs and sunburns, but for Linda’s friend it was the beginning of an artistic genesis. Together, Linda and her friend began a small company based on their silk paintings and although it did not last long due to the economy, their experience and love for silk painting only grew. Because Linda has a degree in graphic design she is able to use those learned drawing skills to create delicate designs for silk paintings. Entranced with the beauty of the silk painting process, Linda continued to grow her skill and love for it.

Twenty-five years after her first encounter, Linda is still involved with the illustriously elegant art of silk painting. Now, at the young age of sixty-nine she is doing what she loves, teaching what she loves and growing her aspirations of continuing silk painting in her later life. Residing in the picturesque village of Topanga, in California, she participates in open studio tours at Topanga Canyon Gallery (which is a co-op studio). In her own home, she continues painting and teaching her craft to eager students. “It’s fun to share the process and get people excited about it,” Linda said.

She is a very accomplished and talented artist, but still has goals she would like to achieve. It is great to be an expert in one’s craft, but Linda sees the importance of expanding her skills and gaining exposure to other methods. In her future explorations, Linda would like to challenge herself to put more of herself into her finished paintings and to take more time and allow the pieces to “speak back” to her. This time of reflection and silence with the finished painting gives

With All Due Respect the piece she says: “after reading about her life I felt a strong connection to her and her love of nature.”

Georgia was a leader for women artists during the early 1900s and really opened the gateway that forced the art world to take them seriously. She began by painting abstract pieces, but throughout her life she ventured to flowers, landscapes, bones and much more.

Linda “borrowed” from some of these categories to create With All Due Respect. “The hardest and most enjoyable part of creating [the piece] was spending time looking at O’Keeffe paintings and finding the ones that resonated the most with me,” Linda said.

Linda created With All Due Respect a couple of years ago using the French Serti technique of painting on silk. For those who are unfamiliar with this, it is Silkworm, Issue 1, 2014

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her inspiration and clarity for what she should do next.

Like most individuals, Linda looks at the future and sees a life full of exploration, nature-filled memories in the hope of relaxing in art. “I would like to push myself a bit to put more of myself into the finished pieces.” Of course, a life without traveling would be dull and so she has made plans of traveling with her partner Rod in a truck-camper. “My hope is that I will have more time to record our journeys in the form of travel sketches.”

With her eyes set on the future, Linda is more than excited to return to SPIN’s biennial festival this year.

“The 2012 Silk Conference in Santa Fe was my first,” she said. “To finally meet, in person, all of the great mentors in this organization was incredible.” To be able to gather together with people who share similar interests is an awesome experience in which this year’s festival will be nothing less than. Linda sees silk painting as more than a gorgeous technique of art, but also as a way of connecting with people who feel exactly as she does.

That is what Silk in Santa Fe is all about, meeting fellow

Silkworm, Issue 1, 2014

silk painters, learning to sharpen one’s artistry and to simply enjoy the wonders of silk painting, together. With longing, excitement and anticipation, she wants to tell her fellow SPIN members this: “I am extremely grateful to all who have given so much of their volunteer time to organizing the conference; you guys are the best!”

So, with the 2014 Silk in Santa Fe on the horizon, just remember what it means to be a member of SPIN. Each of you is a thread of silk that combined, creates this magnificently beautiful organization. Without each of you, this conference would not be as complete. Like Georgia O’Keeffe and Linda Bolhuis, each member is a vibrant color in a breathtaking silk painting. As you patiently wait for the conference date to arrive, just keep Linda’s With All Due Respect in mind, because it is more than homage to Georgia, it is the face of the festival and a reminder of what is to come.

See more of Linda’s work at lindabolhuis.com

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