How do I become an artist?
The traditional view was that the artist was a genius, a man, who worked in a freezing garret and was devoted only to his art. He was separate from ‘normal’ society, but didn’t care – in fact, he celebrated his superiority to it. Perhaps it…
Archie Brennan (1931-2019) and the time he made me cry
Archie was one of my teachers in the Tapestry Department at Edinburgh College of Art in the 1970s, along with Maureen Hodge and Fiona Mathison. He was there less often than they were but he was a strong force, highly regarded for his abilities as…
It’s just not working – what do I do now? Revising tapestries
With some media, it’s easy to correct mistakes. But with tapestry, if you change your mind about something or realise it is just not working, it can mean tediously having to unweave many days’ or even weeks’ work or having to cut out the offending…
The strangest exhibition opening ever
I exhibit my work internationally, and sometimes I am lucky enough to be able to travel to far-flung destinations. It can be exciting to attend the opening of an exhibition, although they tend to be standard affairs with chatting and speeches, albeit tempered by the…
Foraging for Tapestries
I have loved collecting wild food all my life, starting as a small child with wild strawberries and blueberries. When I discovered the books Stalking the Wild Asparagus and Food for Free in the 1970s, I broadened my searches to include plants such as wintercress…
What’s So Funny?
Tapestry is thought of as a serious discipline, historically used to impress its audience by showing the might, taste and prestige of its owners. Or it could cow viewers into submission by frightening them with images of the Apocalypse, suggesting that they should turn from…
The resurgence of tapestry
Happily we have seen a resurgence of interest in textiles as art in recent years. Great – but why is it happening now? We know that textiles have often been viewed as craft and that the practitioners have mainly been women – two strikes against…
How to make a tapestry about Islamophobia
I wanted to respond to Islamophobia, one of the great evils of our age. Along with everyone I know, I was horrified by the Christchurch mosque shootings on 15 March, and the following day I was at the Cordis Prize for Tapestry conference, where Lesley…
Are textiles art or craft – what the critics say
Those of us who create tapestries in the widest sense of the term consider that we are making art. However we are often annoyed or even angered by the way our work is perceived, especially by those who should know better, the art critics. Here…
The Cordis Prize exhibition and symposium
The Cordis Prize for Tapestry was initiated by Miranda Harvey and her husband, the crime writer Ian Rankin. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17498523.weaving-a-new-story-ian-rankin-on-how-he-fell-in-love-with-tapestries/?ref=twtrec They wanted to celebrate tapestry by offering an £8000 prize, the world’s largest, with an exhibition for shortlisted entries, to celebrate and stimulate the medium. This…