Rachel Beckman » Weaver & Textile Designer

July News

You guys, it’s been crazy. Two weeks at Haystack, I came back to Baltimore to work for two days, and then it was 4th of July weekend. I’ve hardly had time to unpack from my two trips, so my apartment looks like a serious fiber disaster area right now because I’m prepping for Baltimore’s fabulous Artscape.

I’m very thankful that I get to participate alongside MICA staff and faculty for our Art Market, Special Edition. Like our annual December sale,  15% of all profits will go to MICA to cover the costs of set up and, most importantly, for scholarships.

Stop by my table in MICA’s Brown Center for handwoven bookmarks, rugs, towels, and accessories, limited edition digitally printed fabric, pins, and patches, and a whole lotta charm!

MICA Art Market Special Edition @ Artscape

1301 Mt. Royal Avenue, Brown Center

July 15-17, 12-8pm

Hope to see you there!

Thesis Objectives, or, Oh My God I'm Graduating

While I have some very exciting news to share regarding some things taking place in February, I thought I would share with you the objectives for the semester that I sent to my advisors, Annet Couwenberg and Susie Brandt. It felt good to sit down and write about the things that have been plaguing me, and even better to share them with two people I respect as much as those two ladies. It’s not the most refined piece of writing I’ve ever done, but here it is! Time is running out, and I gotta make some art!

Thesis Objectives, Spring 2011

Over winter break I hung out with two very old and dear friends and we spent seven hours in a kitchen talking. I listened to them talk about all of the books they have read, everything they have learned in their history classes at their liberal arts schools, and I felt very behind. I do not feel like I have learned enough stuff at MICA, I’ve learned how to do a lot of things, but not a lot of things about the world, and this distresses me greatly. I’ve tried to make work in my four years here that pulls from the world of academia, but it hasn’t been enough, not for me. I would like to start taking a new direction with my life, and it’s making me reevaluate how and why I have considered myself an artist for so long.
The biggest thing I learned from how I was working last semester (and pretty much every other year at MICA) is that I don’t want to continue making art the same way: reading, writing, researching, and making work about the conversations I want to have. I realized that one, I don’t want to be a gallery artist, and two, even if I was, making work in the historical contexts I set for myself in no way benefits me when the art is on the wall or in a space. The reason for this is simply that I love learning and thinking and talking about history and science (and literature, etc.) and I probably should have just been an academic scholar all along; I can’t be with my work at all times to talk about my fascination with circus garments against the backdrop of Victorian society, so why make art about it? I realized that I want academia and art to be separate, that I enjoy making beautiful things more than making art about things I would rather just sit around and talk with someone about over coffee.
That being said, I love making cloth, so the question is:
How do I reconcile my discontent in art and train myself to work in a way that does not rely so heavily on more conceptual and historical themes which I find unsatisfying and selfish? Basically, to cease using academics as a crutch for my artistic practice and start working towards and art practice that does not just serve me, the art marker.
For the latter, the selfish nature of art, I do not know how to resolve that. In the future I want to teach weaving, which is a service for others, so I find comfort in that prospect.
For the former, I have found that I take a lot of comfort in drawing and collage, and illustrating my vision of the circus has been very therapeutic for me in exploring themes of body image and spectacle in the female performer and costuming. I would like to continue these drawings, and furthermore create woven cloth in response to my drawings, the drawing act taking place of the research. I see these two practices as complementary and hung together so that they may inform each other. I would like to focus on display as well as arrangement; with no particular narrative in mind I would like to see how a narrative may evolve visually when all pieces are completed.
I would like to stop worrying so much, to just create as it suits me and to not over-think or over-analyze myself or my art. I think I will be happier that way, because as it is I feel like I am swimming around a black hole and I have so many ideas I’m just frozen. I need to write more, to focus more on my creative writing thesis, and hopefully I will be able to let myself go a little to make work that is more fluid and with more breath.

How's That To-Do List? (More News)

I thought I was going to run out of things do during winter break, but now I see that the next two weeks are going to fly by and I don’t know how I’m going to cram everything in! High on the list are the expected activities: working on my loom, doing some bead work, and, oh yeah, for real starting my minor’s thesis (creative writing). Additionally, I hope to make some time to practice piano and do some organizing in between work and my daily workouts (awesome, right?)

Coming Soon

What I’m most excited about though is my foray into interior decorating. I found this sweet little company that sells lovely fabrics so I ordered a bunch to make curtains and some pillows. Hopefully they will come early next week and I can get to sewing before school starts up again.

In the next few weeks, look for photographs of my most recent hand-woven costume piece as well as additions to my portfolio.

Finally, if you live in the D.C. area, you might want to check out the Textile Museum next Wednesday, January 12 at noon for a lunchtime talk by one of my teachers, Christina Day, on Ikat. She will be referencing models displayed in the museum that were made by students in her weaving class- that’s me and many of my dear friends! Better yet, accorinding to the website, the lecture is free.

Merry Creepy Christmas

Since I’m not going to post on Christmas, I thought I would give the internet a present a day early.

This is an actual thing that my mother received for Christmas from someone at work and it takes crafting to a whole new level of weird. Someone picked out that head, painstakingly hot-glued each piece of candy to its little plastic head. My grandma thinks that it’s cute; I think that it should be locked in a safe and thrown into the depths of the ocean to save us all from doll murder. Alas, it remains sitting in the middle of our kitchen table, watching, waiting.

Merry Christmas!

Color Project- Day 10

I woke up this morning feeling for all the world like vomiting

I would regurgitate mice and playdough and hopelessness

Into your hands so you could feel the warmth of what nothingness

Is

I woke up feeling the gray all around me

And the gray, with nothing worse than gray

Just wont let go