Join your fellow weavers for Guild business and show & tell, followed by a talk by Mary Zicafoose, author of
Ikat: The Essential Handbook to Weaving Resist-Dyed Cloth. What is ikat? What are its origins? How is it created? Could it possibly be worth the extra time and effort? This lecture provides a compelling and exciting overview of ikat makers and ikat cloth production around the globe. Mary has travelled to many countries to work with ikat dyers and weavers. She will share stories and insights about the historical currency of this beautiful and exotic cloth. The talk will also trace the development of Mary’s work in ikat over three decades.
NOTE THAT THIS MEETING TAKES PLACE THE THIRD SATURDAY OF THE MONTH. We need the long weekend for Mary's special ikat workshop.
About Mary Zicafoose: Nebraska artist Mary Zicafoose creates woven tapestries that are as visually compelling as they are narrative. Blending the archetypal with the innovative, her large-scale textiles and architectural installations span centuries of artistic tradition and situates them squarely within the contemporary visual lexicon.
She earned a B.F.A. in Studio Art, at St Mary’s College, Notre Dame, IN, and pursued graduate studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Nebraska. She has been a resident artist at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts resident artist, a three-time USA Artist finalist, and frequent contributor to the Art in Embassies program, with work featured internationally in sixteen US Embassy permanent and lending collections.
She is co-director emeritus of the American Tapestry Alliance, board chair of the Omaha Union for Contemporary Art, and formerly served on the board of GoodWeave USA, an international NGO dedicated to the eradication of child labor in the rug factories of Southeast Asia.
Technically and visually, Mary Zicafoose takes inspiration from modern abstractionists, and draw upon their influence in her signature large, bold color fields juxtaposed against the toothy design edge of ikat. She creates textiles that aspire to more than grace museums, command public spaces, and decorate homes. Mary Zicafoose’s tapestries are woven metaphors that strive to tie the contemporary, the symbolic, and the timeless together, coded to become lyrical, if not timeless, works of art. For more information about Nebraska artist Mary Zicafoose’s career and portfolio visit
her website..