Tapestry Fiber Artist Jan Friedman is VIVA’s September Guest Artist!

Jan’s Biography:

Fiber artist Jan Friedman has been weaving since 1974. Jan received her M.A. in Textile Design at the University of Iowa in 1980. She has conducted workshops in weaving, color, and dyeing throughout the country. Her tapestries and framed collage pieces have been featured in numerous invitational and juried exhibits and have been commissioned for corporate collections across the United States.

A statement from the artist:

I weave tapestries and fiber collages with a wide variety of materials. My pieces draw their inspiration from sky, water, land, and vegetation. In my current work, I am concentrating on what we stand to lose because of climate change and the dire necessity of countering this threat.

A peek into Jan’s world:

I grew up drawing and painting and knew from a young age that I wanted to be an artist. When I started college in art at the University of Iowa I floundered a bit until I took a weaving class my junior year. Right away I felt I was home; I had found my medium.
I chose not to use my art education degree and started going to art fairs and through working with both galleries and art consultants spent many years making large tapestries and then later framed fiber collages for public buildings and private homes.

My looms are one of the most important things in my home studio. I weave my tapestries on a floor loom as well as scarves and the dyed and woven bands that I often use in my collages. I started framing some of my textile work so I could include treasures that I found on my walks; leaves, twigs, stones. More recently I have been incorporating small embroideries on linen using some of my hand dyed silk thread. I often tell people that working on collages is fun, but in reality it is a puzzle to solve and until I find the solution it can be very frustrating. I found it works best to have two on my worktable at once. Occasionally one will fall together quickly but more often I will add and subtract until --voila’!-- I have achieved the balance and harmony I desire.

Nature has always been my muse. Often abstract interpretations of sky, water and land would show up in both my tapestries and collage work, but recently, with climate change I am being more literal by using actual leaves, images of bees, and birds to illustrate what we could lose if we don’t take immediate action.