ONLINE EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW:

The Challenges of Time and Inspiration
An In-depth Interview with Fiber Artist Ardyth Davis



Ardyth Davis began her career as a graphic artist, but began working with fiber in 1970. Since then, she has explored many techniques, including quilting, painting and dyeing, and experimenting with different kinds of knots. Today, her pieces combine many of these techniques.

Over the last 30 years, Davis has won numerous awards. She has sold work to a number of corporate clients, including IBM, Kaiser-Permanente, Levi Strauss, Marriott and Xerox. Most of her work is sold through private and corporate commissions, and museum purchases. As part of the Arts in Embassies Program of the Department of State, her work is also on loan to the U.S. embassies in Indonesia and Pakistan.

"Wrapped Grid/Blue," measuring 28 inches by 49 inches, made of painted, pleated silk. (to see a more detailed picture, click here)

TCR: How did you first become interested in and get involved in working with fiber?

AD: I studied fine arts and graphic design, working as a graphic designer until my children were born. I had always sewn and done embroidery, and it seemed a good way to keep my hand in the arts while the children were small: easy to pick up at odd moments, and certainly less messy than paint. Fiber artists Mariska Karasz and Nik Krevitsky were doing exciting things with cloth and thread, so I began to play in that medium. I took a number of classes with local fiber people, trying my hand at various fiber techniques. Through one of my teachers, B.J. Adams, I was invited to join a fiber gallery just starting at the new Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Va. Being there exposed me to wonderful local fiber artists and gave me a chance to further explore the possibilities fiber offered. During that time, I finally focused on sculptural knotting, which satisfied my love of shape and texture in the fiber surface. That continues to be the focus of my work today. Instead of knotting, I am shaping and manipulating the flat surface of cloth to build a textured surface.

TCR: When did you begin selling your work, and through what venues?

AD: I knew from the start that my work was not very marketable, since it was so labor-intensive. But I thought if I persisted in developing my work, then someday I might get a fair return when I sold my pieces. I was never interested in marketing, only making work. I sell from shows to individuals, some of whom are collectors, and I sell to businesses, mostly by commissions through art consultants.

I send slides of my work to local art consultants, by request, or through recommendations from other artists, and I enter shows, which usually generates requests for slides, from individuals, galleries, or consultants. Showing my work as much as possible seems to work for me.

TCR: What is it about your process that makes your work so time-consuming?

AD: My work, like that of many quilt artists, is usually made up of separate elements, which are assembled into a larger piece. I spend a good bit of time on planning my pieces: graph paper drawings to scale, full time and materials estimates and dye formulas. My pleated silk pieces take about four times more fabric than flat fabric, and since I can only pleat in 10-inch-wide increments, it is rather slow.

I usually hang the full width of my fabric up and paint the dye on with a brush, then cut it to width, pleat it, steam it while it is tightly pleated to set the pleats and the dyes. Then I assemble the sections on the pleater to maintain the integrity of the pleats. This is the basic procedure, but other steps are usually added: pre-stitched lines or hand-appliqued areas put in before pleating, shaped elements inserted under the pleated surface, are just a few examples.

"Oblique Field 7/Blue," detail, measuring 58 inches by 48 inches, made of painted, pleated and stitched silk.

My newest [piece] is made up of rolled cones. Muslin strips are pleated and painted, then undone and repainted, or they are monoprinted with patterns, and then each one is rolled, and all are glazed and stitched to a backing. Linings with casings are added at the end. There are about 1,200 cones in this work of about 9 square feet. I estimate well over two months’ work.

Of course, there is the business side that also takes time: photography, labeling and sending out slides, correspondence and marketing (interviews), packing and shipping, etc.

TCR: What is the price range for your work, and how do you arrive at your prices?

AD: When I was in a co-op gallery situation, I saw what sold, and at what price, in the gallery. And as for commissioned work, there is usually a client with a certain budget, so you have some idea what you are likely to get for your work. You can either do the work you want to do and sell for less, or you make a simple, quickly made piece and get a fair return on your time. I prefer to continue to develop my work, regardless of the time involved, and sell for less if I have to. I try to do the best work I can, as quickly as I can. Generally, my pieces sell for anywhere from $1,500 to $2,000. My works eventually sell, but I could not make a living out of what I do. I am lucky to have the flexibility to do that, because of help from my family, both financial and physical.

TCR: How has your work evolved over the years?

AD: I stopped doing knotting when I realized it was not exactly cost-effective. I turned to making large hand-painted silk quilts, which were much faster than knotting (although much flatter), and had the appeal for me of getting into color, since my knotted works were usually made with natural materials in natural colors. When I discovered that I could pleat the silk in my quilts, I began to see the possibilities of shaping the surface of cloth sculpturally.

TCR: What has been the most difficult thing you have encountered in your work? How have you overcome this?

AD: Since fiber is usually so labor-intensive, one ends up getting sweatshop wages. My own materials costs are modest compared to the labor costs. I have tried the faster techniques, but they do not have the integrity of form I am looking for, so I have not overcome this problem, nor do I expect to. Not being able to produce more than four to six pieces a year, and pricing those pieces as I would like to.

TCR: How to you stay abreast of the industry, and what other artists are doing in your field?

AD: I am currently with a group of professional fiber people, mostly quilt artists, and that keeps me in touch with what is going on in the art and the fiber world. We share information, and develop our own show ideas.

The group is called New Image, made up of about a dozen established quilt artists from the Washington, D.C., area. We meet monthly. We plan new shows and discuss current shows underway. We share information on business matters, on materials and resources, new techniques, books, shows to see.

Jurying in new members happens several times a year. We usually have one or two shows a year. … We now have venues for a current New Image show, HIVE, a wall of quilts, each of us having done 64 12-inch squares, to be hung all together, each quilt mixed at the edges with the next one. This was New Image member Pat Autenreith's concept and is now scheduled to be at Southwest School of Arts and Crafts, San Antonio, in 2003. Other venues are expected.

Ardyth Davis
326 Coppedge Farm Road
White Stone, VA 22578
(804) 435-9557
ardyth@tripnet.com
www.tripnet.com/ardyth

Upcoming shows:

Quilt National '99 (final stop on tour)
San Bernadino County Museum, Redlands, CA
Aug. 15-Sept. 22

Fiberart International
Society for Contemporary Crafts
Pittsburgh, PA
Sept. 17-Oct. 27, 2001

Paintings in Cloth and Thread
Davison Art Gallery, Roberts Weslyan College
Rochester, NY
Sept. 28-Nov. 4

Full Deck Art Quilts Plus New Work (by New Image artists)
Glenview Mansion and Maryland Arts Place,Rockville, MD
Feb. 3-Mar. 12, 2002

New Image Quilters
Virginia Quilt Museum
Harrisonburg, VA
March 2-June 3, 2002

HIVE
Maryland Arts Place,
Baltimore, MD
June 2002
For more information, see the HIVE Web site: http.arsaut.com/hive
HIVE

Southwestern School of Arts and Crafts
San Antonio, TX
Sept.-Oct. 2003