Feb 21, 2014 | Latest Art Projects, Ravens & Eagles, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
Clarissa Rizal finishes weaving the left “ship” – Valentine’s Day 2014
After 6 weeks of illness, weaving while singing voice lessons is heavenly! Golly, what a life! It feels so good to get back to “Resilience.” I designed and am now weaving this Chilkat robe called “Resilience.” You may see the full pattern with the design description by visiting the blog entry here. And you may see previous photos of the process of weaving this robe up until today by clicking on these blog entries here.
I am 6 weeks behind schedule because of my long winter illness. I am not even a third completed with this robe and it is due by June 15th – that’s only 3.5 months! I wove the “Diving Whale Lovebirds” robe in 5 months; looks like I am on for another marathon!
“Resilience” Chilkat Robe – close up of the eyebrow, the beginning of the Raven’s head – designed and being woven by Clarissa Rizal
Feb 13, 2014 | Latest Art Projects, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated, To Market To Market |
An idea for all those metal-smiths/jewelers of Northwest Coast design work! Design concept by Clarissa Rizal – February 2014
Anyone who has known me closely for a long time knows that these shoes are just not my style; HOWEVER, after I had seen them at T.J. Max these metal “dingdongs” attached to the shoe gave me an idea…an idea that I would like someone to do sometime…like within the next year!
I’d like to see some style of shoes that have carved engravings of Northwest Coast Native design work.
What do you say, you jewelers? You up for it? And what shoe company would go for this kind of thing?
Feb 3, 2014 | Adventures of Rear-Mirror Rissy, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
“Diving Whale Lovebirds” Chilkat dance robe by Clarissa Rizal – on the ferry (Alaska Marine Highway) to Skagway, Alaska – June 2013
Here’s a link recently posted January 27th on U-tube to a brief video clip created by the Penn Museum in Philadelphia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1uvgmXP48
Postindian Warriors: Creating a New Consciousness in Native America highlights the influential work of Anishinaabe writer and activist, Gerald Vizenor. Vizenor’s expressions of “survivance” and “Postindian” reject Native American histories of absence and domination, and focus instead on the active presence of Native America today. Tlingit artists Nicholas Galanin and Clarissa Rizal speak about the importance of movement and change in their lives and work as well.
About the project:
Penn Museum’s Native American Voices Video project, completed in 2011, was conducted over fourteen months with support from the Annenberg Foundation and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten. The project resulted in the creation of Postindian Warriors: Creating A New Consciousness in Native America, five short videos about contemporary Native America for inclusion in the long-term exhibition, Native American Voices: The People – Here and Now. Five 8 minute films were produced to highlight important themes that emerged from the discussions.
The interviews were in May 2011. My paintings on the wall were “in-progress”; and, obviously same with the Chilkat robe on the loom “Jennie Weaves An Apprentice” completed in August 2011.
Feb 2, 2014 | Latest Art Projects, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
Lots of braids when you are about to weave the eyes and bridge of nose…yep, folks, this is what a Chilkat weaving looks like when in “full bloom!” – and you wonder how we keep track of it all!
I’m doing a trade with Preston Singletary. The first pair of Chilkat leggings were a little too big for him, so they became a part of the “Copper Man” Ravenstail/Chilkat ensemble (which is now in private collection in Seattle), so I began weaving this pair about 6 years ago. It’s slow going; trades are slow going when you’re trying to keep up with paying the bills. Trades are always on the back burner. Though these leggings are getting done, slowly but surely.
It’s proof in the pudding that practice-makes-perfect. I look at this weaving now and think “golly, it’s not very good…” compared to how I weave now. Also, the warp is not very good. It’s spun pretty evenly but before I figured out the trick of stretching the warp taut when wrapped around the wooden back of a chair to dry, this warp is too bulky. For those of you who know how to spin and know how to weave, and have figured out tricks-of-the-trade in making good warp, you will understand what I am talking about here.
From the beginning shape of the eyes in the photograph above to the completed “electric” eyes in this photo, it took about 3 hours to weave
Even so, the weaving is okay. despite my critiques. I’ll be getting back to it again as soon as I complete the “Resilience” Chilkat robe. I am finishing up old business as well as completing commissions and trades. It feels real good to do this.
Thank you for staying tuned in during the progress of this weaving!
Jan 30, 2014 | Honoring Others, Relationship Overdrive, Uncategorized |
Lily Lalanya Hudson Hope and her mother, Clarissa – December 2013 – Juneau, Alaskaphoto by Kelly Burnett
The moment Lily was born the morning of January 30, 1980, my condemning, self-judgments began to cease. This thing called “love of self” was felt in every cell of my body; I remember it quite well. I feel this is the gift she gave to her mother and this is the gift she gives to the rest of the world – it is also the gift in and of herself.
Lily is all kinds of things, but first and foremost the past six years, she is a mother of two of my favorite people in the world, Bette (Grandma’s nickname for her is “SikiKwaan”) and Louis (Grandma’s nickname for him is “Ajuju”). She enjoys homeschooling her kids; being a full-time mother right now is her favorite job, though for her sanity, she has her own weaving/sewing/beadworking room!
Lily has done all kinds of jobs, she always went “up the ladder” in no time due to her organizational abilities, her mathematical mind and her love to just be busy making people happy. When she was 18, after only a month, she became the manager of McDonald’s in Pagosa Springs, Colorado; then at 20 she became the Marketing Director for Whole Foods in Santa Fe, New Mexico and a beadwork artist for an internationally-famous mask-maker out of New Orleans. When she returned to her hometown of Juneau, Alaska 10 years ago to help take care of her Grandma Irene, she was led back into her Native roots.
She received her Bachelors Degree from the University of Alaska Southeast in 2005. By way of Perseverance Theatre in Douglas, she became an actress and with the assistance of her Grandpa Bob Hudson attended the San Francisco School of Acting. She also became an award-winning storyteller, winning top awards in the All-Alaska Storytelling competition; she and her husband, Ishmael Hope have performed at the Smithsonian. She got back into Ravenstail and Chilkat weaving and won 1st Place for the 4-piece, child-size woven ensemble in the Traditional Arts category of the Sealaska Juried Art Show. She used to have a website under Lily Hudson, but her name changed when she married Ishmael and she hasn’t gotten her younger sister, Ursala the web-designer to create a new website just yet. Although you can visit Ishmael’s superb website at: www.alaskanativestoryteller.com
Ishmael, Lily and their two children live happily in Douglas, Alaska.
Happy Birthday, my Nina!
Dec 1, 2013 | Latest Art Projects, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated, To Market To Market |
Collage of “Tlingit World Series #101” by Clarissa Rizal – 2013
Today I completed two new collages marking the beginning of the next 100 collages in this collection called “Tlingit World Series.” Since 2001 I have made 100 collages. Most of my collages are made of reject hand-printed silkscreened prints, maps, found papers, giclee prints, and on occasion, Japanese papers.
These two collages are donations for a good cause; they will be available for sale at the fundraiser auction for the new Klukwan Cultural Center. The auction is held at the Burke Museum in Seattle, Saturday, December 7th starting at 6pm.
If you are in the Seattle area and want to collect Northwest Coast art, please attend!
“Tlingit World Series #102” by Clarissa Rizal – 2013
Nov 27, 2013 | Latest Art Projects, Tlingit Culture Accentuated, Uncategorized |
Weaving the beginning of the “seaweed” Chilkat weaving I designed for a small handbag
The village of Klukwan, Alaska is hosting a fundraiser to assist in the construction of their Cultural Center. This even is held next week on December 7th at the Burke Museum, University of Washington State, in Seattle. Click here for more information on the cultural center and see other artists’ donations for the fundraiser.
Yesterday I began weaving this Chilkat “seaweed” bag to donate for the fundraiser. I intend to finish it by Saturday’s 2pm mail out deadline. I intended to have it completed by the first of this month but many unforeseen circumstances arose; slowed me down a bit. At times like these, I call myself “Cutting-It-Close Clarissa.”
Later this week, I will post photos of the completed project; stay tuned!
Nov 7, 2013 | Class Act, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
Chilkat weaving class taught by the late Jennie Thlunaut at Raven House, Haines, Alaska, March 1985 – photo by Larry McNeil
Weavers of Chilkat, Spruce root, Cedar bark and Ravenstail gather to share their knowledge during the Clan Conference held this weekend starting today through Friday and Saturday at Centennial Hall in Juneau, Alaska. Click here to find out more info; read the Juneau Empire article.
For those who are in Juneau and do not want to attend the conference but want to see the weavers, there is a $5 fee only on Friday and Saturday paid to the Clan Conference. Thank you to Peter Metcalfe for inviting the weavers back in full force this year! Thank you to Lily Hope for assistance in coordinating the event. Many thanks to all the volunteering weavers who have come from far and wide and locally; happy spinning and weaving to all!
Oct 27, 2013 | Latest Art Projects, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
The right corner of the Chilkat robe – the top border of yellow is completed – 26 hours later…! So far so good, I am on track…!
26 hours to complete the yellow border and the 5 strands of braids at the bottom of the border – those hours are in between the hours of this particular Fall, winterizing the house/studio, nor coordinating the Weavers’ Gathering demonstration at the Clan Conference, nor babysitting grand-children, nor painting a donation piece, nor spinning warp for a Chilkat/Ravenstail pouch for another donation, nor cleaning and organizing the studio for another round of intense work until June, nor the daily routine of eating, sleeping, and taking care of my body.
I am far from lazy, from from being bored, far from being a “kept woman” and far from taking a vacation any time soon! All I do though, I LOVE to do; I have a lot of love in my life – all the things I do I love, all the things I be, I love. I realize I spend most of my day “in love.” There isn’t much time in the day spent on things I do not love. I’ve been this way a long time. Even though I may not act like it sometimes, I give thanks every morning no matter what my mood, and I give thanks every night as I put my “home” to bed. It’s been my unspoken way of appreciation and gratitude.
Nobody needs to know any of this though I share it here with you, the reader. Why? Because some day some time long past me posting this blog entry, I may read this again years later, because in a way this blog is like my work diary. I used to keep track of all my work via hard-copy photographs placed in a plastic sleeve with pages of notes on the current project at hand…I’ve got shelves of my work all categorized in big 3-ring binders on shelves I had built to take the weight of it all. Now my recordings have gone virtual with the blog site. I may read this entry years later and it is a reminder of who I have been, where I was at, and I get to compare it with who I am on that future date!
My work lives in the future. My system, my entire way of thinking is mainly in the future. So this blog serves as a vehicle to contain the present-day work and adventures for eventual past reflection. When I am real old and I look upon my past, I intend to enjoy myself and others all over again!
Oct 22, 2013 | Latest Art Projects, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
Completed the black top border of the robe – 41 hours later!
Here’s a close-up photo of the black top border of my Chilkat “Resilience” robe that I am weaving for the Portland Art Museum…notice the subtle texture of the weave. I weave over three warp ends instead of two when weaving the black and yellow borders of a Chilkat robe. I learned this from my teacher/mentor Jennie Thlunaut, last of the traditional Chilkat weavers who passed away in 1986. She suggested that I use size 3/6 weft yarns (equivalent to 3-ply commercial yarns) and weave over three warp ends – ONLY IN THE BORDERS! These techniques create a subtle texture and a larger “frame” for the design field of the robe.
I will be posting more updates while weaving this robe over the next few months; stay tuned and thanks for visiting!
