Exciting News! Grant recipient for “Weaving the Land” proposal

(Text shared from @sustainablespinster Instagram account)

I’ve got some really exciting news! Earlier this month I received an Individual Artist Grant from The Arts Council of the Southern Finger Lakes (@theartscouncilsfl) for a project I’m calling “Weaving the Land”.

In 2023 I inherited land in Mecklenburg NY, and along with the exhaustive learning curve that comes with grief and home ownership, I became responsible for caretaking the land and ecosystem my woodworking father had so lovingly tended for the past 30 years.

It felt unfathomably overwhelming to me to become familiar with our trees and structures, needs and history in the way my father had. But as I spent more time in our garden plots, pruned branches, cut back hedges, and weeded invasives - I realized that I did in fact KNOW a lot of the plants on my land, I just knew them in a different way.

My father knew our wild native hardwoods and pine trees because of their wood use - for shaping or heating. I realized that after decades of textile classes on a range of skills and practices including a lot of practical basket weaving, I knew a lot of my plant neighbors for their textile use. In my hedgerows, woodlot, and field saw willow shoots, dogsbane stems, corn husk, birch bark, grape vines, blackberry canes, iris and daylily leaves, and so much more all growing on the land I had a newfound care and connection to.

My proposed project is for me to spend nine months, growing, harvesting, and weaving a land map out of the found and abundant fibers already growing at my home. I’ve worked with many of these plants before, and am a novice weaver, but this project is a huge artistic leap for me. Even describing my textile endeavors as “works of art” requires a mental shift.

All said I am extremely excited to embrace this project, and embark on another big learning curve- both with my land and the soon-to-be-discovered joys and frustrations of working with a wide range natural fibers found at @arqbarnmecklenburg.

I am deeply grateful to the Arts Council for supporting the vision of an as-of-yet unpublished artist, and look forward to sharing my journey with all of you as I try my hand at “Weaving the Land”.
🗺️🪢🧶🌿🌾