Brought to Light

I’d like to start sharing more behind each piece I make, because the process and the truth revealed is really what it’s all about for me. I’ll start with this piece :) It is a double sided, two in one woven friend.

I wove this piece with the intention to display the yellow side, as it is the sister to a yellow-circled textile piece I made a few years ago. There’s a lot of stopping and starting in my art practice, always has been. I like to live with a piece and journey through the season I’m in with God and work out what’s going on inside me and what He’s teaching me through what I make. I never really know what I’m learning in the process, or what’s really truly going on inside of me and around me, even though sometimes I think I do. It’s only after time and space away from the season and the piece that I can see the truth. Art really is a way of knowing.

So! I wove this with the intention to display the yellow circle. I wove it during a season of massive transition and grief and also joy. I wove it in the early months after having my first child, after losing my dad suddenly to cancer. I wove it while living in a foreign country far from my family of origin and where I do not speak the local language (I still live here in Germany). I cannot stress how not graceful, but grace filled the season in which I made this was. Most days I felt so cracked wide open that it was impossible to hide from what I was carrying and where I needed healing. But, Jesus saw me in it and through it and he helped me.

While weaving the yellow circle, I didn’t trust myself on how I chose to construct it. I felt it was messy and that in it I exposed myself in some way that made me cringe. But, I stood by my initial decision and kept walking/weaving on towards the end of the piece. Mostly because I didn’t want to take the time to make it ‘perfect’. How funny that the woven underside, the messy side, the side I felt exposed something about myself I wanted to hide is now the side I most prefer. I find it’s more interesting, has more character, knows more so who it is and is more beautiful even.

My hope is that this piece helps you to also see that in all that’s come to the surface these past few months, that you’d be open and honest with yourself and with God about it. That you wouldn’t align with what Shame is telling you and instead that you’d be kind to the places you need healing and believe that you are loved especially when you feel unloveable.

I believe that in the process of it all you are becoming more interesting, your character more refined, that you’ll soon know more so who you are and that you are becoming even more beautiful— because at the end of the day it all starts with what’s inside. 

2018 Fellowship Award

Last year I was encouraged by a friend and mentor from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts ( Hi Don Ehman! ) to apply for a 2018 Fellowship through the NJSCA and the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. My work was reviewed by a panel of peers working in my field and I am so overjoyed to share that I was among 18 artists selected from 219 applicants to be awarded a 2018 Fellowship for artistic excellence!

I would not have applied for the Fellowship had it not been for my supportive friend, which is why I share this news with you all. As artists, we pour our heart and soul into learning, developing and pursuing our crafts while also working to pay our bills. It is not an easy way of life. Most of us dream and produce our work in the privacy of our homes and studios - and sometimes it feels like what we're pouring ourselves into might not matter because we don't make a living off of it or show our work in galleries.  

What a lie! The private processing is where the real meaning is found - in the suffering, the questioning, the relentless quest for even more truth and beauty and purpose still that develops our character and manifests itself through something we create with our bodies. We need the private process, the solitude, the potential loneliness in order to get what's on the inside out through our chosen craft. Only then can know our true voice and use our God given gifts to come alongside and encourage others along their journey. 

This past year I've practiced diligently in believing that there are good plans for my life, that I am blessed even when I don't feel that way. Blessings kept to ourselves are cut short of what they are intended to be, which is why my prayer is to be blessed so that I may be a blessing to others. Life is not fulfilling when it's all about us. In that truth, I am so grateful to have received this Fellowship and to dive deep into dreaming of what to do with the money.

Expect an outpouring of truth and love and hope in the form of community engagement through the craft that has been so transformational in my life and in the lives of many other weavers who've come before me. I am so looking forward to sharing more information as the dream develops and begins to reveal itself. 

An Exercise in Story Mapping

I'm starting a new series of work for a show this summer and I need your help! Dedicated to the greater story at play in each of our lives, I'll be working with several women to make a story map of their lives - which will then be turned into woven forms that can be carried on the physical body. This project has been developing in my heart for months and months and is something I am so proud to begin working on with those who would like to engage in their stories through the practice of story mapping, material exploration and woven construction.  

Seems like a tall order?  Let me explain:

I tested my theory with my own story while in residence at Textílsetur in Iceland and found the experience to be so eye-opening and healing and practical.

I believe that we can choose to find purpose in the highlights and heartaches that we experience over the course of our lives. If we engage in our story in a safe space and look for purpose, we can find it. And we can make something beautiful with it and carry it with a sense of empowerment that leads to a deeper, richer, more fulfilling life.

Who am I looking to work with? Any woman whose heart calls out from the deep, who is aware of the joys and pains of life, and who is open to finding space with me to make something beautiful out of her story*. The completed woven object will be part of a public gallery show and will be gifted to the woman upon completion of the show. 

There is something about the art form of weaving that translates so purely to the human experience, and I would love to share the practice and process with you. If you are interested, or know someone who might be, I would love to talk with you. Please send an email to hello@katewilt.com by May 1, 2017. 

*Personal details are NOT required to be shared with me during the process. 

Artist in Residency at Textílsetur Íslands

This past February I had the opportunity to take time to slow down, to travel and to invest in myself as an artist and a person as an Artist In Residence at Textílsetur Íslands, the Icelandic Textile Center in Blönduós, Iceland. It was my first time visiting Iceland and my first time doing an artist residency. I spent the month weaving on old Countermarch looms, cooking all of my meals, taking walks around town and have since decided I will love Iceland forever and that I want to approach my life as if it were one big artist residency.

I'm still processing all the magic that took place in Blönduós, but wanted to share some photos with you in the meantime. I hope you enjoy and that they inspire you to act on what's been pulling at your heart strings. Take seriously the taking care of yourself. 

Frame Looms by Jason Stumpf

Not much is better than working on projects with friends that you admire.  To teach weaving classes on tapestry looms made by my friend and master woodworker - Jason Stumpf - is a treat I enjoy every time I tell my students where their looms came from.  Lucky for us Jason works with some of the best hardwoods, which makes our looms both beautiful and built to last. 

In an effort to cut our consumption of materials, Jason makes the looms out of hardwood scraps he has left over from his fine woodworking projects.  Side secret - I grew up with a few of Jason's custom pieces in my parent's house!  Life is cool.

Check out Jason's work here and here.  

Purchase one of Jason's tapestry looms in my shop!. 

Natural Bundle Dyeing at Norse Studio

The perfect sendoff for our beloved summer months.  

An afternoon spent under the trees learning how to bundle dye with natural dye material at ceramic artist Lauren Shoemaker's Norse Studio - Thank you to all the women who came to learn, to play and to share what's going on in their lives.