Pancake Breakfast
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Tapestry

For the past 25 years I have woven tapestry wall hangings. Lately the images have been about 'the journey of life'. The vehicle is a little car, traveling through Alberta and the Rocky Mountains, through tunnels, across bridges, uphill, downhill, racing to the top, having love affairs.

The Dutch plank loom has proven itself a faithful vehicle for my expressions. The continuous linen warp around carpet nails easily leads to creating whether one works intensely on it or with many interruptions. On the board underneath the warp a 'cartoon' (drawing) is placed, which acts as a reference and notes. The weaving itself takes place with a long blunt needle threaded with wool or acrylic yarn. The strands are beaten down tightly with an ordinary steel fork. By completion, when the top nails are reached, the nails are removed and the remaining warp is only seen as small loopholes.

Weavings are by nature tactile and reach a wide audience. That is one of the reasons for being labeled folk art. They are often perceived as decoration for the body, table, chairs, walls or floors, whether they are functional or not. Most of my weavings have borders around them to avoid misunderstandings. I love to play with that border and have the images blend into it. Framing is an option, but not necessary.

So, why this time-consuming technique, when painting would be faster? Well, it would not be the same. Paint does not absorb light the way fabric does, nor does it give the same sense of warmth. I am interested in bold and contrasting colours, flat shapes, story telling and humour.

In a fast-paced society, labouriously weaving tapestries strand by strand is for me a natural choice of being simultaneously able to create and contemplate. The repetitious physical movements of weaving can be compared to active meditation. No wonder Greek mythology put deities in charge of destinies - and the preparation and handling of yarn. That was passed on to Nordic mythology with the Norns.

And one spin-off we are still aware of is the tale of Sleeping Beauty and how she met her fate: being pricked by a spindle wheel. As a child in Denmark we played a game while singing that story.

Metaphors relating to textile construction are still widely used in poetic language and daily communication, like "the tapestry of life", to "spin a tale", to "weave a story", and most recently the "web site". In traffic the Danish word for 'merge' is 'braiding'.

Yarn, as a medium was for me an unavoidable choice. I am fortunate to be able to transform it into images that are new to the eye of the public.