joelewis textileart

Exhibiting in my first international show Octobre 2011

2011-12-14T21:23:00.000-08:00

Fibremen

International Exhibition of Contemporary Textile Art

Kherson Local Lore Museum,

Kherson, Ukraine October 18-29 2011

presented by "Scythia" Textiles

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Vasyl Andrijashko /Ukraine, Carlos Arias/ Chile/ Mexico, Cafer Arslan / Turkey. Josef Bajis/ USA, David Brackett,/USA, Miroslav Broos/Slovakia , Rob Burton/ Great Brittan, Gregorio Chavez/ Peru, Thomas Chung/ Australia, Zlatko Cvetkovic/ Serbia, Michael Dennis/ USA, Alexander Fedorenko/ Ukraine, David Fraser/USA, Mustafa Gurguler/ Turkey , Peter Harris,/Canada, James Hunting/ Great Brittan, Andrew Schneider/ Ukraine, Bill Kerr/ USA, Kevin Kissell/ USA, Yury Kukhar/ Ukraine Joe Lewis/Canada, Clay McLaurin/ USA, Richard McVetis/ great Brittan, Maciej Mesznik/ Poland, John Paul Morabito/ USA, Michael Radyk/ USA, Michael Rohde/USA, Jean Pierre AVONTS SAINT LAGER/ France, Taiki Sukigara/ Ja


detail of Reflections on the Man in the Moon, which was one of my two pieces that was in the Fibremen International Textile Art Exhibition in Kherson, Ukraine

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You can see an overview of this exhibition in fibreQUARTERLY Volume 7 Issue 3 Fall 2011 Men & Textiles

Fibremen International : Exhibition Sampler

Images on Cover from top left corner, Stag by Grant Heaps, floating on top of Lang Pioneer Village interpreter Clarke Stanley weaving a rag rug on one of the three Samuel Lowery Handlooms in S.W. Lowry Weaver Shop and Jacquard Loom Interpretive Centre at Lang outside of Peterborough Ontario, beside details of three works from the recent Fibermen International Exhibition in Kherson Ukraine, Richard McVetis proportions of a male figure, 2010, hand embroidered wool – seeding, cross stitch h76 x w58cm Clay McLaurin Lichens, 2010, cotton thread on bristol board, machine embroidery, Dimensions (cm.) 51 x 36, Joe Lewis detail of 'Reflections on the man in the moon" Jacquard woven cloth, Knitted Paint Can and Brush by Thomas C. Chung (also in fibermen international) Carl Stewart "memoria" 2008 cotton: cross stitch

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Reflections on The Man in the Moon, MCCT June 2010

2010-12-21T14:49:00.000-08:00

Following obsessions is one way of describing contemporary weaving practices regardless of what methods are used. In my life as a painter there were flowers, landscapes, male figures, portraits, in my life as a quilter there were flowers, landscapes, male figures, portraits, and in my Jacquard woven textiles all of these have made an appearance.

Here is one of my painting of flowers being held by a figure

standing in a landscape (Saltspring Island)

Here is a painting transitioning itself into a quilt with landscape flowers and figures

This is a landscape mural I painted painted in a bedroom in a house in the country, the bedding , the tufted duvet and pillow case are also made by me.


A jacquard woven self portrait made during my first visit to the MCCT

One thing does lead to another and a line can be drawn from my earliest drawings of flowers as a child in terms of shapes and colour to what I do today.

Can you find two things that are wrong in this photo* see bottom of page for correct answer
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After doing a workshop on the TC-1 in Austria in July 2009 I got back to the MCCT in June 2010 to continue exploring what I had started in Haslach. There I had decide to explore white on white damask but it was more about texture it is hard to limit yourself when working with the complex weaver structures that can be woven on a jacquard looms. As I have built a vocabulary of weave structures over the past ten years my concerns in making cloth have changed and given that this time in Montreal I would be designing for a 6 colour warp I still wanted to see if and how to bring as much white onto the front of the cloth while including the other colours.

Expanding last summers flower garden and combing a previously used landscape I began to work on a two coloured shuttle design.

This is one of the weave structures I created [I call it peek -a-boo, it as an eyelet look ]

Working with a structure i had created three years ago to produce a rich red, I liked the effect and then shifted it to bring each colour to the front and made one piece using only this structure.

Three shades of blue and two reds using the same structure.

This is a detail of the different shades of white, distance plays an important part helping the eye recognize what it is seeing on the surface of a jacquard cloth much like Georges Seurat's pointillist paintings

This detail of "white" floats on a backdrop of colour which is a garden siting under a big sky

Sky Detail

Earth detail

Reflections on The Man in the Moon, 2010, six colour repeated warp; black red green blue yellow and white yarn, woven with a two colour weft; black and white, 48.26 cm wide X 1.42 meters High (19 “X 56”)

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Cows can not lay down with their legs in front it is physically impossible and "W" is missing from the alphabet

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"Desire in shades of Purple" Scanned of woven photocopies

This the first DIYJOE, downlaod this image make an 8. x 11 thermal transfer of it and iron it on a T-shirt and Bobs your Uncle! your very own DIY Joe Lewis T-shirt

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Telling Tails: Woven Narrative Textiles: Kathy Schicker and Joe Lewis April 2010

2010-12-21T10:54:00.000-08:00

2010 saw my first exhibition in Toronto since 2000. Telling Tails: Woven Narrative Textiles a two person show with British textile designer and jacquard weaver Kathy Schicker whom I had met at the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles around 2004.

This time gap may seem a rather large, but my reality is that in oder to do jacquard work i am dependent on accessing looms that that belong to some one else or are housed in an institution like the Montreal Centre of Contemporary Textiles. Since I desire to work rather exclusively with a Jacquard Loom to create new image based woven textiles I am restricted by geography and accessible time . I have work at the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles for limited time periods almost every one of the past 10 years to produce what was shown in Telling Tails

“Blue Genes” 2003, 68 cm x 1.05 meter (27”h X 40” w) Warp: cotton, weft: 1 shuttle, cotton and acetate

Gallery view Sisters by Kathy Schicker on left 3 Guy Hanging around by me on right

The exhibition was plan to coincide with American weaver Lia Cook's exhibition Faces and Mazes which open at the Textile Museum of Canada the day before our opening on April 10. It was an opportunity for both Kathy and I to have our work seen be and artist who is in the top of our medium. It was also an opportunity for a Toronto audience to see three distinct approaches and use of the same computer assist weaving technology. The exhibition was reasonably attended and the media coverage has been local provincial and international.

Collaged view into Berkeley Castle / Gallery @2 from the front door

Telling Tails: Woven Narrative Textiles can be seen on line POPLAR Gallery (it is currently moved to the archive)

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Coverage of the exhibition

Photo of Joe Lewis by Christopher Jones. Live With Culture

Joe Lewis rides the Jacquard Wave by Christoffer Jones, Live With Culture April 8 2010

Telling Tales, Textile Forum 2/2010 June pg.10

Fibre Focus Autumn 2010, Volume 53, Number 3

"Beyond the Studio, Joe Lewis: Holding the Torch High. by Graham McCracken pg. 29

Joe Lewis Jacquard Weaver by Graham McCracken: http://www.ohs.on.ca/members/fibre-focus-magazine/ is a download from the website,

Fibre Focus is the magazine of the Ontario Handweavers and Spinners and is published 4 times a year in March, June, September, and December.

Lia, Kathy and me in front of Kathy's "Sisters" piece at the opening of "Telling Tales: Narrative Woven Textiles by Joe Lewis and Kathy Schicker"

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Austria July 2009, T-C1 workshop with Vibeke Vesby

2010-12-21T10:16:00.000-08:00

Haslach Upper Austria was the location of the European Textile Association’s 15th biannual Conference: “Revival of Old Textile Centres: a new future for training” Wednesday, July 22 until Friday July 24, 2009.
The ETN 15th conference took place in Austria at the Textile Centre Haslach, with pre-conference activities in Vienna and Linz "2009 Cultural Capitol of EU" and post conference workshops organized by the Haslach Textile Centre.

During the day of Networking presentations I spoke on publishing fibreQUARTERLY and about textile and fibre arts activities in Canada (this presentation was supported by the Canada Council)

After the conference I took The Sky is the Limit: Challenge your creativity with a TC-1 and Photoshop ™ with Vibeke Vestby from Tronrud Engineering Norway who is the developer and manufacturer of the T-C1. Using Photoshop ™ to create weave structures was something I had been resisting because I had been using Poincarré ™ software in Montreal at the MCCT and "The Woven Pixel" by Alice Schlein and Bhakti Ziek.just seen a bit like starting at scratch. 10 minutes into the workshop however I was slapping myself on the for head and uttering duh and grinning from ear to ear. Building weave structures a pixel at a time in black and white and then defining them as a pattern to replace a colour in the design was so simple and such an obvious use of that particular bit of software I was stupefied by me resistance and just got down to it.

This the image I was working with during the T-C1 workshop

This is a simulation of the damask pattern I developed from the garden images

I wove a test sample with a white weft on the white warp

Being a workshop my sample is the cue waiting to be cut out, I was satisfied with the result but realized I had used to many weave structures to make a readily recognizable Damask which for most people is the simple two colour or two tone weft faced Satin and its reverse. I decided to move onto something more complicated and insert multiple coloured/ shuttle areas into a primarily white on white multi layered cloth with the colour inside when not on the surface (front or back) rather then a brocade.

that little strip is my sample and for me it was enough to answer my questions on how and if this design would work.

The inserted upright rectangle will be a 6 colour insert. I wove a small sample but at that point the loom started to act up so being unfamiliar with the loom I stopped, but I had enough to convince myself this design could be produced.

Later in the year Vibeke provided me with an image of larger sample of this design she had woven for me. Using a green rather then white yarn to punch up what I planed as white on white area of the design. Looking at this 18 months later and having heard two papers on Velvet weaving at the TSA symposium in Lincoln in October I now am thinking a trip to the Lisio Foundation is in order and a silk damask with a multicoloured velvet brocade might be an interesting way to go.

Here is a photo of the workshop group standing left to right Christina Altona, Doris Hascher, from Austria Simona Standler from Czech Republic, Heide Peitarinen from Norway, Joe Lewis (Canada) with Vibeke Vestby, Agnes Haupty from New Zealand and Khatuna Popiashvili from Georgia in front of T-C1 and Della Reams an American who teacshes in Qatar. [Textile Conference bring an international audience together don't they]

To read more about the Textile Center Haslach and the 2009 ETN conference go to fQ Volume 5 Issue 3 Fall 2009 for Conference reports and there is also a longer article on Haslach Textile Centre

Links to the Organizations interest mentioned in this postings

European Textile Network http://www.etn-net.org/

Textile Centre Haslach http://www.textile-kultur-haslach.at/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

T-C1 Loom http://www.tronrud.no/index.php?id=58&L=1

Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles http://www.textiles-mtl.com/

Lisio Foundation http://www.fondazionelisio.org/index.php

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Weaving in Technological Time

2008-08-02T13:56:00.000-07:00

Six Colour Warp Workshop at the Montreal Center for Contemporary Textiles.

computer simulation of 6 colour warp, two colour weft double cloth colour test

In the beginning at the computer you work, you work at understanding not only how the software works, but how your own software (brain) works. There still seems to be a mistaken incomprehension as to the makers hand involvement in digital driven design and production technologies such such as those used to produce jacquard weaving. Believe me as a maker your "hand" or rather bother hands are never removed from this processes, except when you have a coffee in one and a cigarettes in the other, at which point your brain is juggling the endless the possibilities

Once you understand how and that the software does work. Using this sequence of six colours repeated across the width of the warp as your base it becomes a process of designing weave structures that draw the weft threads (two or more shuttles) across, underneath or hidden in the middle the warp to bring colour. texture and pattern to the surface, front and back of the cloth being woven.

using this design

here are weave structures for 6 of the 9 colours created using two weft threads black then white

In the simplest way, think of threads crossing as pixels, in the images above there are two wefts drawn across in the same direction, a black square is a warp thread on top of a weft thread, and this spread of six are stacked/ shuffled together up for black or below for white and compressed to be seen / taken as one pixel of colour.

These black and white squares are instructions for the loom

Simulation of design above ( it is a mirrored vertically)

You create simulations, get colour test woven, tweak line, shape, shade, design. As in all creative work you are involved in on going decision making until you achieve the piece of cloth you envisioned.

this a scan of the sample of part of the design that was woven (Click on it for a larger view, use back button on browser menu to return to blog)

For your viewing and listening pleasure a commercial, i mean a mini movie

The weaver/loom technicians at the Centre, in this piece of "Video Art" the weaver is Dahlia Milon.

after all that its time to relax

The Nancy Ward Residency / summer 1991

2008-05-05T21:17:00.000-07:00

"The Nancy Ward" was time and space provided to me by Artspace in Peterborough Ontario. For a two month period I wonder the streets finding things to paint on, furniture, cardboard an Ice cream cone sign. One way or another everything ended up with "romantic" landscapes on it.

During this time there was a weekly "Cerebrate" or "poetry Slam" that was documented on both video and audio tape. during these evenings I would occasionally sing a song (watch video for sample) but mostly told an on going serial story" the future adventures of Black Betty" present as if it were a 1930's Radio Soap., local writers and actors also present there own work.

Interior Murals

2008-05-03T12:14:00.001-07:00

"Tom's Chicken" private home Peterborough Ontario. 1989

Sneeky Dee's , College St,and Bathurst, Toronto "Yuppies Go West South 8' X 4' 1990

Flight- Cameron, Toronto July /August 1994

2008-05-03T11:26:00.000-07:00

home Life STyle Objects At Bloomsberries 1994 -95

2008-05-03T01:03:00.000-07:00

Bloomsberrries Clothing and Art, 808 Queens St East. An exhibition/ installation of painted furniture, home decor object and mural and faux finished walls

Where You Goin' the Mall 1987

2008-05-02T21:54:00.000-07:00

poster for return performance December 1987

Where You Goin' the Mall ( multi media solo performance ) was originally created / presented at Mutli Cab 5 Regional Performance Festival at Artspace in Peterborough, Ontario in the spring of 1986, it was subsequently submitted and accepted by the Edmonton, Vancouver and Los Angeles Fringe Festivals (the LA performance was dropped and a "ode to Italy and Other poems substituted and after good advance media coverage, it didn't happen) (oh well, such is life)

the Edmonton Sun Thursday August 20. 1987

GONE WITH THE FRINGE :Musings left crowd baffled

By NEAL WATSON Staff Writer

Joe Lewis in costume as one of his four Where You Goin’, The Mall? characters. However, only the changes in attire distinguished their personalities. (Monica Manly of Colour Your World Cosmetics)

—Photo by Robert Taylor

Although billed as a multi-media performance, Where You Goin The Mall? does not entertain or provoke — or provide even remotely interesting viewing on any level. With slides blinking random newspaper clippings about shopping malls on three different screens, writer/actor Joe Lewis engages in a monotonous, seemingly off-the-cuff, monologue. The common thread is his erratic lecture-style musings about the sociological significance of mall shopping. It is not worth taking notes. During the course of the performance, Lewis disappears behind the screens for what seems an eternity, eventually returning as one of the four characters be plays in the Fringe production. The characters are essentially interchangeable, with only costumes to distinguish them. Lewis then continues his lecture to a totally baffled crowd. Most of the audience couldn’t fathom this one and made for the exit when Lewis conveniently disappeared behind his screens to change.
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Zap the clown/ janitor (Edmonton Journal)

The Edmonton Journal Friday August 21, 1987 — James Adams

Where You Goin’, The Mall? (Stage 8)

You’ve heard of performances? Well, how about an anti-performance? That’s what Ottawa actor- writer Joe Lewis delivers in this intentionally atrocious 40-minute mixed-media one-hander that may or may not be “a quasi- examination of information and how it’s presented

Lewis plays four characters — Monica Manly, a beautician; Bill C-54, “a comic-book character;” John Cruising, a businessman; Zap, a janitor turn clown. They each deliver utterly banal, seemingly off-the-cuff monologues while sitting before three running TV sets and three screens backlit with slides of paintings, newspaper clippings about shopping malls, a picture of Marxist theorist Walter Benjamin, slogans and a photo of a brick wall, among others. At one point, Lewis scatters balloons among the audience. Later he hands out advertising flyers. There’s talk about sex in mall washrooms and being videotaped by the police.

Actually, to say that Lewis “plays” these characters is to over state the case. About the only thing that distinguishes each character is the costumes Lewis changes into behind-screen. Throughout all this, Lewis’s rambling delivery remains flat, un- involving, off-hand; it’s as if he’s perversely determined to give the audience the worst possible experience of the Fringe, to tread that line between “boring” and “intriguing.” You won’t enjoy Where You Goin’, the Mall? But it’s awfully interesting, and interestingly awful, in its wilful refusal to entertain.
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THE VANCOUVER SUN, Thursday, September 17, 1987

Split Skits: some funny, some flat By LLOYD DYKK

At the Western Front, Ottawa’s Joe Lewis has a piece of performance art called Where Ya Goin’ — the Mall? It’s bland, vague and unstructured and that may be the point, considering the subject. The one thing it’s not that malls are is disorienting. You’re always aware that this is performance art.

There weren’t many shoppers there on Wednesday night — maybe eight people — but Louis was valiant. While slide project ions of malls in various states of activity flashed on three screens and videos played on two TVs, he portrayed four mall denizens:

Monica Manley, a salesclerk at a “color your life” cosmetics counter; Bill C52, a cartoon boy born at age 20; a straight man in the habit of frequenting wash- rooms for illicit purposes; and a janitor/part-time clown. None of these is as developed as you might hope.

The commentary was as rambling and flat-toned as mall life and seemed largely improvised. It’s a very loose show. Maybe the funniest and loosest thing Lewis does is hand each member of the audience a copy of Plain Truth magazine to riffle through while he goes behind the screen to get into another costume.

He’s likable despite everything. And he’s done some homework apropos of malls. One of the throw-away passages quoted on the screen is from the anthropologist Abrams: “The human animal has always required a central area to which others of his species can gravitate to exchange glances, boasts, confidences or protests.”

The Barbie Show On tour 1985/ 86

2008-05-02T21:30:00.000-07:00

1986

The Barbie Show,

part four, Tulip Café, Paris On..
part three, The Rainbow Room, Toronto, On.
part two, Peter Robinson College, Trent University, Peterborough, On.

1985

The Barbie Show,

part one, Metropol Espresso Bar, Calgary, AB.

PETERBOROUGH EXAMINER—; Friday January17, 1986

Artist uses Barbie do as symbol of female stereotyping

BY MARTHA TANCOCK

It was while thumbing through the toy section of a Sears’s catalogue that Peterborough artist Joe Lewis came up with the idea for THE BARBIE SHOW, an exhibit of paintings — not dolls — now on display at the Peter Robinson lecture hall.

When the former Trent University ‘student saw the rows of Babies dressed in a variety of outfits, he saw not an innocent children’s toy, but a symbol of what he calls insidious stereotyping communicated by the western media. So there are no ‘real” dolls in this show, there are only painted variations of the clean, blonde and blue-eyed plastic model of this supposed womanly ideal, a premise Lewis rejects absolutely,

Lewis’s art is sarcastic, iconoclastic, a little frantic, and theatrical, reflecting perhaps his experience in Toronto and Brantford theatre groups. He amuses, he provokes. On the surface, his work seems like one big, flamboyant hoax. But the narratives that deface the images, the messy symbols that crowd his cheap paper canvasses, contain a serious intent and a clear message.

Lewis has managed to incorporate everything that he thinks is threatening in this world into the image of Barbie. At first she represents the dumb blonde who has more fun. He develops a perceived link between stereotypical women whose proper place is serving men and a rigid, right wing society that supports Ronald Reagan, who is equated with the bomb.

The most powerful image, perhaps is the final one: a pampered woman wears diamonds in one magazine photo, and another woman’s hands are shown at the typewriter “ Typewriters are a girl’s best friend.”

The show continues into February largely for students who use the lecture hall. The public can see it Mondays and Thursdays from 9 to 11a.m. and Wednesdays and Fridays from 7 -10 pm

recreating family images

2008-02-10T21:11:00.001-08:00

what do you do with all those years of photos

a new idea

2007-11-09T10:39:00.001-08:00

at 5am, i sat bolt upright, fully awake, drew a picture of three dresses and decided they would float in front of an photographic image of a sweat shop and two would have cupie doll legs and the third would have the legs of a porcelain ballerina. the i turned on the computer and with a bit of drawing and a bit of searching... half an hour latter i had my newest tapestry design

gladstone opening

2007-11-05T20:58:00.001-08:00

Kate Bushy and ? and me

me and jacquard man

Photos by Rita Leistner / Photo journalist
Represented by Redux, New York.
http://www.ritaleistner.com
http://www.reduxpictures.com

Unembedded - Four Independent Photojournalists on the War in Iraq
by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, Kael Alford, Thorne Anderson, and Rita Leistner

For more informtation: http://www.unembedded.net

pieceWORK bad photos from show

2007-10-25T05:52:00.001-07:00

4 jacquard tapestries hanging around in room 205 at the Gladstone Hotel on Queen Street West in Toronto Ontario, October 11 through 14, 2007

the work looks better in real life, but the people who photograph my work keep becoming reasonably employed if not some what famous, so what are you supposed to do

more about many things later

4 days only in room 205

2007-10-04T18:58:00.001-07:00

joelewis for 4 days only in room 205 during

pieceWORK Show and Sale of Textile and Fibre Arts Exhibition at the

GLADSTONE HOTEL

1214 QUEEN ST WEST TORONTO ON M6J1J6

Opening Reception Thursday October 11 6:00-9:00pm

EXHIBITION HOURS: Fri Oct 12– Sun Oct 14 Exhibition Hours 12-5pm

pieceWORK Show and Sale of Textile and Fibre Arts

runs concurrently opening weekend of BIGFBRE littlefibre

which runs October 11 – November 25, 2007 at the Gladstone Hotel

three guys hanging around

2007-07-31T18:23:00.000-07:00

work from latest trip to the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles

where what and when: working with Jacquard

2006-12-11T07:48:00.000-08:00

Where: The Montreal Center for Contemporary Textiles

5800 St Dennis Street studio 501

Montreal Quebec H2S 3L5

What: Beginners and Intermediate Workshops in Jacquard Weaving and Pointcarré Software

Instructor: Louise Lemieux Bérubé:

Graduated in History of Art, Louise Lemieux Bérubé has taken on courses specialized in textile design in France with the creators of the Pointcarré software as well as design for Jacquard weaving in the USA (Rhode Island School of Design). She has also studied Haute Couture, contemporary visual arts and interior design.

Since 1990, she is President of the “Conseil des métiers d’art” of Québec. Cofounder of the “Centre des métiers d’art en construction textile” of Montréal, she is also director of the school where she teaches textile creation on computers.

Or two weeks of play at the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles.

First it’s repeat repeat repeat actually first it is arrive in Montréal at least a day in advance of the workshop and find your neighbourhood spot. A place where you can cool out (and believe me you will need it) this time around (this is my second time taking these workshops and my third visit to the centre) this time I was staying over by Concordia and found Café Fuego at 1846 Ste Catherine Quest in the block west of Rue St Mathieu. Great Patio in shades of Ochre, Beige and Black, strong coffee, great sandwiches and Gelato it is an envelope of comfort.

What?

Day 1 introduction to the Centre, Jacquard Weaving and Pointcarré Software and repeat, repeat and repeat. It is a process of designing an image that can be repeated with the push of a button.

Well this was my second attempt like or not it is what it is. This design is created in a Pattern Window which has a set of tools and commands that are different then those provided by Photoshop and other design software. The way the Colours operate is very specific to the next step in the soft ware which is the Jacquard Cloth Window. In this window weaving structures are assigned to each specific colour.

A simulation of the weaving is generated by the software and gives you a fair example of what the final weaving will look like. 1 warp (white) 1 weft (colour)

But the reality is you are learning new software and it is weaving and you are required to check and recheck because if you don’t what you think is a nice one inch repeat ends up being a 8 inch wide image that repeats 4 and a half times instead of 42

I became obsessed with the idea of making my own upholstery for my couch, and played a bit with other designs (which where supposed to be a brocade which is learned on the first day of the second week) but I open the file while still have another file open and the structures where replace by the old file and blah blah blah. This is a unfortunate deficiency in the software I think, but knowing this can happen should make you more conscious of safe working procedures, but I find accidents and mistakes provide future source material so here is a mistakes from day one of week two ( again it is a repeat and should have been a brocade, but I lost the second weft when I open it after looking at the first repeat Jacquard Cloth Window)

Though this design had a mistake that means starting over they gave me a better starting point then my first design a sample of which was woven with an orange cotton weft on a white cotton warp and is quite frightening really looks like something a teenage girl of quickly approaching middle age pop starlet would wear as a skirt.

And now back to the first day and its only noon and lunchtime. A greasy spoon of the factory building which houses the Centre at 5800 Ste Dennis in Montreal makes you whish for a McDonald’s or Burger King.

Afternoon session

Shaded Satins and Twills, classics in textile construction and yet used artistically, efficient at rendering photographic images. I will let them speak for themselves.

Step One: First you take a scanned image, then using the Pointcarré software you bring down the number of greys in the image (and there are more then you can imagine) to 13

Step Two: Assign 1 Warp (white) 1 Weft (brown) a sequence of weave structures that go through a monochromatic grey scale of light to dark

Step Three: push a couple of buttons and tada a simulation, a Shaded twill (not woven) the obvious difference from image one to image three above is the stretching that has occur and it is at this point you go back into the software to make corrections to achieve the proper shape and scale.

There is of course more to it then pushing a couple of buttons. In this case the simulation was set of with a white cotton thread for the warp and a brown cotton thread of equal size for the weft to achieve the sepia tone I was looking for. The reality is you can make changes a pixel at a time by keying in a design window from the jacquard cloth window and with all three windows open at the same time you can actually witness the simulation reweave each change as you make it.

2006-12-11T07:43:00.000-08:00

This is the third workshop I have attended ( and the second time I have written about it: see Jacquard Journey in Fibre Quarterly 2005 Anthology or Surfacing Journal Summer 2002, Volume 24, Issue 2) and each time a philosophical question comes up about “Why weave a photograph?” The simple answer is you can clime Mount Everest because it is there. It is however a more interesting question than that. As the development of the Jacquard loom made a dramatic change in Western Weaving Traditions of Europe that were progressing through the racial changes of the on going “Industrial Revolution”, the invention of the Camera brought about a ground swell of innovation and radical change to the very essence of painting. The camera allowed/ forced painters and “art critics” and philosophers to see with new eyes. During the same time period of the mid 19^th century science developed new pigments for paint and dyes that gave a new pallet to use, some dyes more destructive to the yarns being used at the time ( history tells use many things) then others. That is a different story.

With the Centre for Contemporary Textiles and these workshops under the instruction of generous and patience Louise Bérubé, give the opportunity for both practicing weavers and non weaving artist the time to experiment with this concept. Computers give us a variety of method by which to acquire or create and alter images/ patterns. The Jacquard loom also provides another set of choices and chances to sequentially alter images, weaving being a method of building surface a thread at time, weave structure and yarn composition and colour adding yet more elements to these chances to achieve effects within the constraints of the medium. The finished Jacquard cloth in itself becomes yet another medium to embellish, alter and manipulate makes the original question of “why weave a Photograph?” almost a mute point. Max Allen of the Textile Museum of Canada likes to say that textiles are a site of story telling let me get on with telling you about my two weeks at the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles.

Shaded Satins plain and simple: The source material guy above and guy over to the right, The design below, The simulation and yes this one was actually woven. And why weave a photograph? Why not?

This shaded Satin has been woven and is entitled “two guys and a cigarette” is 40” wide by 18” approximately.

Next: Double weave: 2 warps (white) 2 wefts (2. different colours/ layers) stitched

End of Week one,

As weavers techinal langauge and graphic depictions of weave stuructures are recognizable and for non weaver it must be obvious that the grid is ultimately the basic source of all weaving design. This is information that is as complicated or simple as your personality allows it to be and it is the backbone of what these workshops are about: processing designs down to the technical instructions for the computer operated Jacquard loom to follow. You need to “Suspend your disbelief” in the Bretchtian sense when you approach most new software, you must believe it works, not necessarily understand how it works that will come with time

Too Weak need more coffee Week Two

Since I have already over loaded you with text week two will just be images. I have put this in the Aroundtown Blog for expedience sake to show my fellow workshop participants what I was working on and now invite the rest of them to submit their own images and thoughts. I have also put this in the Blog to let other artist and Textile people get an inside view of the work it is possible to contemplate doing through the MCCT under the tutelage of the gifted Louise Bérubé

Shaded Brocade 1 Warp (white) 2 Wefts A(brown) B (red, brocade)

Multi Coloured Satins
1 Warp (white) 3 Wefts A( brown) B ( light Brown) C (yellow)

Multi Coloured Shaded Satins , 2 Warps (white) 2 Wefts A (brown) B (orange)

Shaded Satins with Shaded Brocade
1 Warp (white) 2 Wefts A(orange), B (brown brocade)

Now the mistake would be to have not have had a naming strategy for keeping ones files in proper order. In the Pointcarré software as I have said there are several different windows in which you can work on your design and weave structures and the finally saving a the cloth window along with its harness tie up into a different software readable by the Looms computer and at any step along the way you can misplace or lose any one of them, because ultimately we are only human and when trying to provide the all mighty computer with all it requires we are capable of trashing the harness tie ups, placing the cloth page in the wrong file and ….

Needles to say I left the report pages of the weave structures to be woven with no cloth file or harness tie up to weave them into. A healthy sense of humour is a gift from the gods and I do hope you possess one it makes life and its (not to mention your own) foibles very entertaining

The End.

One of the workshop weavers Marilyn Bernier is a graduate of the Centre and has her own Studio Shop in Montreal the website is www.bure-linon.com

You can visit the Centre's website at

http://www.textiles-mtl.com/English/e_Main.html

and Louise Lemieux Bérubé may be found on line at http://web.mac.com/llemieuxberube/SiteE/Welcome.html

The schedule for the 2007 jacquard workshops can be found on the Workshop and Conference page of fibreQUARTERLY

In the City ( a comic strip)

2006-12-05T19:24:00.000-08:00

fibre collage (coming soon)

2006-11-29T09:20:00.000-08:00

Quilts [coming soon)

2006-11-29T09:08:00.000-08:00

The Male Gaze

2006-11-29T09:06:00.000-08:00

Dangerous Curves

9” X 12” felt appliqué ,2002

EXHIBITION HISTORY

OR, Guild Hall Whitehorse YT Canada, 2002

GENTLEMAN WAITING (Caution)

20" X 19", 2000, blue felt, red velvet, and embroidery floss

Exhibition Historty
Yukon Sketches OR Guild Hall, Whitehorse, YT Canada,

MAN UPRIGHT

20" X 19", 2000, Blue and Pink felt, Red Velvet. And embroidery floss

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Yukon Sketches OR Guild Hall, Whitehorse, YT Canada, 2002

Red Too Belt,

2003 jacquard tapestry weaving,
cotton warp, cotton and metallic weft, 27” X 40”

sign Language ( reading the road signs of life)

2006-11-29T09:03:00.000-08:00

In the spring of 2002 I had an exhibition in the Yukon in Whitehorse, at the Guild Hall. A converted Quonset Hut left over from the Second World War construction of the Alaska Highway . It is now a multi use performance, exhibition and meeting space, home of the Guild Theatre a semi-professional theater company. "Sign Language" was the name of a collection of 25 small felt appliqué hung in a grid or pairings suggesting a narrative left to the imagination of the individual viewer.

WILD FLOWER 7 X 8 approx. 2001/02, felt appliqué

NOH, 7" X 8" felt appliqué 2001

Go Left, 7” X 8”, 2001/02, felt appliqué

POWER, 7 X 8 approx. 2001/02, felt appliqué

In the beginning: a painter’s life

2006-11-29T09:01:00.000-08:00

joelewis: Curriculum Vitae

2006-11-29T08:46:00.000-08:00

Education: Self taught

Solo Exhibitions

2002

Yukon Sketches, OR, Guild Hall, Whitehorse, YT

2000

Velvet Highway and Other Journeys, Material Matters, Toronto, On.

1999

Patchwork; Reconstructing the personal, Artspace, Peterborough, On.

1997

Construction,

part two, Cameron Public House, Toronto On
part one, College Street Bar, Toronto, On.

1996

Surface,

part two, Eye Of The Storm, Toronto, On.
part one, Street City Bikes, Toronto, On.

Land Weather Family,

part three, Myxed Media Art Gallery, Calgary, AB.

1995

Land Weather Family,

part two, Visual Arts Ontario, Toronto, On.
part one, Caffe Senator, Toronto, On.

1994

Flight, Cameron, Public House, Toronto, On.

Baroquecoco Trash, Bloomsberries Clothing and Art, Toronto, On.

1993

Story, Express Café, Toronto, On.

1992

New Work,

part two, La Hacienda, Toronto, On.
part one, Express Café, Toronto, On.

1991

Land (e)scape Memory, Levity, Toronto, On.

The Nancy Ward/Residency Project, Artspace, Peterborough, On.

Reference, Cameron Public House, Toronto, On.

1990

Flowers and Other Things, Express Café, Toronto, On.

1989

Pain, Cameron Public House, Toronto, On.

Confessions of a caffeine addict, Rivole, Toronto, On.

1988

Dirt, The Extra Space, Toronto, On.

New Work, Broadview Gallery, Peterborough, On.

Myth and Object, The Rainbow Room, Toronto, On.

Barbie's Dream House, Artspace, Peterborough, On

1987

Juggery, Trent University Women's Centre, Peterborough, On.

1986

The Barbie Show,

part four, Tulip Café, Paris On..
part three, The Rainbow Room, Toronto, On.
part two, Peter Robinson College, Trent University, Peterborough, On.

1985

The Barbie Show,

part one, Metropol Espresso Bar, Calgary, AB.

Selected Group Shows

2006

2000

Stocking Stuffers, Pentimento Fine Arta Gallery, Toronto

Foundations' Peterborough Arts Unbrella, Peterborough On.

1998

Instant, Olivia Thompson Gallery, Toronto, On.

1996

Wear, object referencing the body, Truck Gallery, Calgary, AB.

1995

New Land, Daniel B. Sponagle Gallery, Toronto, On.

1994

Home, South Logan Salvage, Rescue, Scarp and Art, Toronto, On.
Curated by Garth Barriere

Middlemarch, Arts and Letters Club, Toronto, On.
Organized by the Literary Press Group

1992

AIDS Memorial Show, A Space, Toronto, On.
Curated by Clamorous Intentions

1991

Images For Life, Evelyn Amis Gallery, Toronto, On.
Curated by Spencer Row

1990

Raw Fantasies, Artefect, Toronto, On.
Curated by Philip Carins

1989

October Rage, The Extra Space, Toronto, On.
Curated by Michael Allen

1988

No Bill C-52, Weller Potovsky Gallery, Toronto, On.

The Erotic Show, Artefect, Toronto, On.

1987

The Exchange Show,

part three, Artspace, Peterborough, On.

1986

The Exchange Show,

part two, SAW Gallery, Ottawa, On.
part one, K.A.A.I., Kingston, On.
Peterborough selection Curated by David Beirk

The X-Mass Show, Gallery 101, Ottawa, On.
Curated by Dennis Tourbin

1985

Taking stock, The Next Wave, Artspace, Peterborough, On.
Curated by David Beirk.

Selected Performance Work

1995

Small Business, 16mm film by Rita Listner, Toronto, On.
''joe'' lead male

1993

Dishfunktion, an evening of performance work by joelewis and Metia Winkler at Artspace, The Market Hall, Peterborough, On.

1992

Rochdale, a play by Friendly Spike Theatre, Poor Alex, Tarragon Extra Space, Toronto, On. 'postman' a projected character

The Nancy Ward, in concert reading of script for 12 voices, at Artspace, The Market Hall, Peterborough, On. Writer / performer

1990

My Secret Kitchen, a performance piece by and with Margaret Dragu, at Artspace,The Market Hall, Peterborough, On. ''Art Director'' super numerary

1987

Where e You Goin' The Mall, solo multi media performance, writer/performer, Producer / Director, Garth Barrierre / Synk Productions
Western Front, Vancouver BC, 3rd Vancouver Fringe Festival
Stage 8, Edmonton AB., Gone with The Fringe

1986

She Should Have Stood In Bed, a courtly entertainment for S.G. Taylor
during ''this moment is an Eternity'' installation/performance at Gallery 101 in Ottawa, On.

Where You Goin' The Mall, solo muti media performance
Multi Cab 5 regional performance festival,
Arstspace, The Market Hall, Peterborough, On.

''...nice day'' solo Dance piece, Choreographed by Jane Mappin
La Groupe Des Place Royal, workshop performance
Artspace, The Market Hall, Peterborough, On.

Selected Readings

1992	from Disfunktion... Open Country Books, Calgary, AB. The Union Theatre, Peterborough, On.
1991	Disgo, Dhatgo, improvised story telling Friendly Spike Theatre, Benefit, Toronto, On. Sync Cabaret Too, open mike, July- August, weekly M.C. and improvised serial story
1990	Betty Stories, improvised serial story, Yo, open mike nite, Feb.-May The Love Club, Toronto, On. And I Do Sing, book launch. The Union, Peterborough, On.
1989	Fashion is Not Your Friend, poetry Reading Hangman Pub, Peterborough, On.
1985	Ode to Italy, poetry reading, Ten Foot Henery's, Calgary, AB.
1984	Two Narratives, short story reading, A Gala Night of Performance, Artspace, The Market Hall, Peterborough, On.

Publications

Ode To Italy, synk Ink, 1985, poetry chap book
Where you goin' the mall?, synk Ink, 1987, comic book
Better never than late, synk Ink, 1989, comic calendar
Dishfunktion: a deconstruction of the micro wave safe, pas de chance 1994, novel

Articles and Reviews

''lewis vision...'' Catherine Jenkins,
Arthur, Trent University student paper, Vol. 4 no. 12, 1983

''Barbie Doll'' Martha, Tancock, Peterborough Examiner, Jan. 17, 1986

''...Comes to town'' Garth Barriere, Go Info, Dec. 1986

''Where you going'' James Adam, The Edmonton Journal, Aug. 21 1987

''...crowd baffled'' Neal Watson, The Edmonton Sun, Aug.20 1987

''...some funny'' Lloyd Dykk, The Vancouver Sun, Sept. 17 1987

''Home Unstable'' Jake Baken, Arthur, Vol.22 no.6 Oct. 1987

''Hard Questions'' Andrew McPhail, Extra, no.107, Aug. 1988

''Expressive...'' Lisa Lowe, Arthur, Sept. 20 1988

''Artistic Cabaret'' Chris Corrigan, Peterborough, Examiner, Jul.5 1191

''Queen West'' Garth Barriere, Extra, Feb. 21, 1992