TEXTILE TALK: Conversations with the Artists: Layered & Stitched: 50 Years of Innovative Art

[@BAM-jc7uy]

Michael James: as a kid/teen in the 50s-60s, the cranes seasonally came through Albuquerque...it became a yearly ritual for me each year to be woken up around 4- 5 am as they were lifting (from pastures and Rio Grande)...I would go outside sit on the curb with a blanket around me to watch for a couple of hours the thousands of cranes flying in giant V formations that literally covered ALL of the sky.....and by late mid morning it would just be stragglers. The 50s early morning fly overs was so wonderful. My younger bros and sis, children and grandchildren have no conception of how wonderful it was to see thousands and thousands of cranes in V formations covering the sky as far as the eye could see. By the mid 60's, it was just a few hundred and today, a maybe a handfull if you drive past acreage at the right time in the morning near the Rio NM.

[@BAM-jc7uy]

Michael James' "Bourree" is reminiscent of I R Pereira's 1949 abstract on glass "Vacillating Progression." I think something was written about Pereira's study in abstract patterns was liken to music, rhythm and harmony?? I wonder how the movement of light over "Bourree" would interact with the silk element?? I also wondered how Pereira's "White Lines" would be re or interpreted using fabrics or papers. Great interviews and showings...thanks!!! NM