By Amy Axen, from Stony Creek, New York, was inspired by the images and designs in the Baldishol Tapestry to create her 21st-century “Baldishol Bandana,” both a decorative and functional piece. She studied the flora and fauna, and the geometric and organic shapes, in the original tapestry. She parsed the design elements and the story told in the images to create her own layered interpretation and homage. She began with careful study of the symbols in the Baldishol Tapestry.
She came up with came up with a complex, layered design and prepared both hand-carved wood blocks and hand-cut pochoir stencils for her textile printing.
Amy wrote in her application, “Each iconic image…will be inspired by those utilized in this treasured, historic, Norwegian antecedent.”
She mimicked the colors of the original tapestry with several botanical inks and dyes, including ochres harvested on a recent drive from San Diego, California, to the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York.
With color and symbols she added layers of meaning.
The finished piece:
Amy has a broad art education and work background. She majored in Fine Art for both her undergraduate and graduate degrees, worked in the art departments of two magazine publishing companies and an advertising agency, and finished her formal career with over two decades as an art educator in public and private schools. She is skilled in several media, and especially enjoys drawing, painting, print and book making, ceramics, jewelry, puppetry, and animation. And fiber! Amy remembers two special textile mentors. She remains grateful to her junior high school Home Economics teacher who taught her to pin, cut, sew and iron a garment made from a paper pattern. Later, she felt blessed to be introduced to both dyeing and and the beauty of tapestry weaving by her professor, Margaret Kilbuck Johansen (1921-2004).
Amy Axen pulled together her Baldishol design into layers of meaning, a joyful re-assemblage of symbols from the Medieval tapestry, using skills from her rich and varied career. And despite the current challenges and constraints of the pandemic, she wrote, “Now, in “retirement,” each day I awaken to continue to create and I love every moment of it, just as I always have.”
During the summer of 2020, follow along with stories of the artists and several virtual experiences during the Norway House exhibit, The Baldishol: A Medieval Tapestry Inspires Contemporary Textiles.