Signals from Noise is a new series of Tapestries from Cathryn Amidei that reflects her interest in connections, communication, imagination, knowledge and vision. An interview by gallery member Sara Adlerstein follows. She asked her about her creative process among other related topics.

1. You indicate in your art statement that when you weave and throw threads on trajectories through space, connections between how you make art and the world are constantly on your mind. This thought process translates beautifully in titles of the pieces in this show: Synergy, Wave Length, Resonance, Engagement, A pause, a transfer. Unlike painting or other forms of visual art, the process of weaving is “row by row.” How much in-the-moment improvisation goes into the creative process during the actual weaving as compared to preparing to weave a piece?

I see improvisation differently than a painter might. By the time I am standing at the loom slinging shuttles, many improvisational moments have been enlisted and incorporated into the work. The labor of my work is based on continuity and connection. By the time I am at the loom, I am ready to listen and learn. Certainly, I can make sudden changes if I wanted and have done so but, after laying the path out for days and weeks often - these kinds of improvisations never satisfy.

2. What do you hope the viewers will get out of experiencing the art you created for this exhibit?

My hope is that viewers will have the same opportunity to move in and out of the works as I do. As I make my tapestries, I zoom in and out observing the matrix at both micro and macro levels. When I step back I know that what I saw up close is still there and when I am too close to see the edges of the piece, I can still feel the energy. Small changes at the level of individual intersections impact the color, texture and gravity of the work overall. Just like real life, small decisions have a big impact.

3. Earlier work that you have shown at WSG are representational ranging from the images of the human body to landscapes. The pieces in this exhibit seem rather abstract. Are the pieces based on existing images? Can you take us on your thought process for this transition and does it represent a permanent shift?

I think when I make figurative works, I am referring to fields of feeling, paths, and connections between the inner space/landscape that we carry within us and the world around us. When I make landscapes, especially trees…I see people. Of course, this is speculative on my part….I often learn what I am doing by doing it.

These works began as color smashings. I have been making these for quite a while, but have only woven a few of them. I use oil pastels and rub color onto vellum paper and then push the colors into one another. This action is referencing my work at the loom where I lay one thread in and push it into place, next to other threads, and in so doing make a new color or texture.

One other thing I did with this series was to begin each work session with a kind of meditation. I drew cards to find “threads” and paths in my thoughts. I wrote out what emerged, usually until the stream ran thin. We all have so many thoughts running thru our heads all the time. Where to begin? I considered all of the forms of connections, and signals and how we receive or send them. Then I lay colors down and smashed or pushed them into place. Often repeating the phrase that emerged from the reading and writing. Not exactly autonomic, not exactly on purpose.

In regards to a permanent shift in my work? Everything is changing all the time, nothing is permanent. I believe I have found a way to engage with ideas that dance around form and language but won’t be nailed into place by either. For now.

4. The palette of the pieces in the current exhibit is rather subdued compared to most work you have shown at WSG. What influenced the choice of colors and is there a color you cannot live without?

Almost all of the colors were dyed with natural dyes: roots, flowers, bugs and leaves. I only chose colors that are known historically to be light and wash fast. The molecules that make the colors themselves are larger and more complex - which is why they have a more nuanced presence. If they were a sound it would be beautiful and choral. (If that is a word.) There is a color that is moving toward red - but looks like melon, or sunset, or soft, warm apricots or and sometimes persimmons …. derived from Madder root and cochineal that I can’t seem to leave out of my work.

5. You are fiber artist working on different materials including natural and engineered. How do you choose your materials, what is your favorite material to work with and why?

I mostly prefer natural materials. paper, silk, cotton, and different forms of rayon. I think I want to create environments in my tapestries that are like the world we live in. I don’t ignore engineered materials, because their properties can be pretty interesting.

6. When and why did you chose fiber art as your medium of making art?

Before I even learned to weave, I was telling people I would be a weaver. I have come to see that weaving is the most real way I have to express and share what I learn about our experience.

7. Most people are unfamiliar with the TC-2 digital jacquard loom you use to create your work. Please describe how the loom works, your working space, and how the particular characteristics of the loom influences your creative process.

My loom has 3300 threads. I can direct each and every one. It has a metal body and sits right in the middle of my studio. It is a handloom even though I connect a computer to it. The computer is used to instruct the loom about the lifting of each thread. Unlike other looms, I have direct access to the matrix that I build. I am not limited by cables or cords - only by my imagination. While others might see limitations, I have spent my entire art-making life working to understand the full impact of what direct access can mean.

8. Name artists who have particularly interested you and what is about their work that inspires you?

When I try to express in words the ways that this list of artists has interested or moved me, influenced me, and educated me, I erase and start again. I think that is the thing. I learned something from each of these artists that moved directly into my body - thru my eyes, ears, and spine - that isn’t coming out. If I try to touch it directly, enfold it in words or even chose an image to represent that impact… it slips away.

I love Paul Klee, William Kentridge, Petah Coyne, El Anatsui, Sonya Clark, Ohad Naharin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Anthony Gormley, Kehinde Wiley, Artemisia Gentileschi, Okwui Enwezor, and Hannah Ryggen.

9. Elaborate on the experience of being part of WSG, a member-run and owned art gallery.

I have found a home amongst the artists as WSG. I feel so indebted to everyone for their wisdom and kindness. It is a gift beyond valuation to be a member of a group of people who are moving and growing and who share stories and experiences through their words and works.

10. How has the current pandemic affected your art and life as an artist?

In some ways, my practice stays the same. I am an introvert and love my time in the studio. As such though, I am learning about the necessity of connection and human contact. I have become more conscious of time. More conscious of rhythms and patterns in time than in the blocks and chunks that I used to be so stressed about. I have expanded my other related activities - I teach courses online and have really grown in terms of my digital life. I think I have more fully embraced the physicality of the work that I make…could be as a balance to all the virtual work?

11. How do decide on the name of your pieces?

I have to give a title to my work very early on as it moves from paper and photographs to file folder to the hard drive. As I am weaving, I begin to get feedback from the work. Slinging shuttles is a meditative process and at that point, I can hear what is coming to me. So, often the titles rise up to me as I work.

12. How do your emotions influence your art making process?

I want my work to exist emotionally as much as physically. I don’t think I have missed one emotion on the way to making my work. The tapestry is a thing that lives on a continuum. I work until I feel a response in my body to the surfaces, textures, and colors. Just like emotions, every piece has 2 sides and space within. The process of making is actually many processes that are all connected. When I cut off work, the warp still remains for the next piece and when I make a new warp, I tie it to the previous. Just like in real life, we experience the present moment in joy or in excitement and we hardly ever know the moment that one emotion shifts to the next.

Interview with Cathryn Amidei