#pathmakers

Untitled (1970s) by Colton Brown Via Flickr: Rut Bryk Ceramic

Transcendence (1958) by Colton Brown Via Flickr: Mariska Karasz Embroidered Wall Hanging Wool, Cotton, Silk, DMC Cotton Floss, Lurex Fibers and Mercerized Cotton Thread

Moved by the Museum of Art and Design's Pathmakers, a response

I plan to be a lifelong artist. It might be a little early to make such a plan--I could be hit by an New York city taxi tomorrow or have a revelation and take up accounting. Possible. For now, the plan is art, anywhere I can find it.

I recently attended the Museum of Art and Design for the first time. MAD has a current exhibit that pulled me in the doors: Pathmakers Women in Art, Craft and Design, Midcentury and Today. An exhibit of lifelong, female artists to be inspired by. To say I was moved by the work would be an understatement. I entered Pathmakers through the Ralph Pucci: The Art of the Mannequin exhibition. This unexpected treasure is a beautiful peek into the artists workshop. The exhibition shows both the breadth of Pucci's work and the expressiveness possible in a mannequin. The reconstructed workshop replete with body part casts and full body moulds and armatures is definitely a highlight. Alongside The Art of the Mannequin is the MAD Tiffany Jewelry Gallery, curated by Isabel and Ruben Toledo. (Let me take a moment to say that Isabel and Ruben Toledo are two of my favourite people. Nope, I have never met them... But they exemplify my overarching life goal: To be a cool, artistic person, doing my thing in the world, collaborating, being amazing, and having a financially viable, albeit unique, life.) The MAD Tiffany Jewelry Gallery is a small but powerful showcase constructed in layers of gray felt sheets, stacked and shaped into whimsical faces and landscapes. The impressive design of the exhibit is balanced in opposites; it is grounded yet lighthearted and elegantly cheeky.

Pathmakers is spread over two floors. The show is mainly hand crafted work with some midcentury and modern design pieces. Personal highlights include Dorothy Liebes’ textiles and Prototype Theatre Curtain for DuPont Pavillion, New York World's Fair, 1964 and the wall of panels coloured with marker on rayon silk velvet by Polly Apfelbaum. The work is disparate and varied but came from the same, honest place. I would like the remove gender from my  response but in this case, cannot. Generally, I would rather not know the gender of the artist when I first encounter work. I believe a gendered perspective is limiting on both sides of the chromosome and can lead the viewer to presume and project, as well as limiting their instinctual reaction. That being said, even in the most modern, streamlined works in Pathmakers, I felt an element of femininity. It was not a girly, fragile, surface femininity but, instead, something natural, raw, essential. It was a core connection to the material, that I noticed. I believe women are forced to reconcile with our natural state in a way that men are not. I got a sense of this from the work. Every piece in the exhibit struck a balance between weight and lightness--elements of both existed and provided dynamism and tension. Rut Bryk’s Untitled tiled, ceramic wall hanging, was physically heavy but visually light, lifting and spirited. Material use throughout Pathmakers is rooted in tradition with surprises of daring innovation and boundlessness. Weavers presented un-conventional weaving materials to, both, create tools and woven works. This blows open traditional craft on both sides, showing that nothing in the process need be entirely sacred and untouchable and everything can be manipulated. The same can be said of the traditional role of a woman in art and design.

I have chosen fashion design as my new artistic medium. Trying to channel my buzzing mind into this new medium is the challenge. I take in New York with measured stroked, hoping when the time comes, I will know how to categorize and when to move instinctually, when to limit and when to expand. I want to bring an explorers spirit to my own work. Pathmakers connected me back into the earth and to my roots. These women expressed through material manipulated by their hands and their vision. Wisdom delivered with subtly, the women of Pathmakers placed their anchor in tradition while turning away from the expected. I hope I can be one of them.