Apr 6, 2013 | Latest Art Projects, Ravens & Eagles, Tlingit Culture Accentuated, To Market To Market |
The proposed “Resilience” Chilkat robe design by Clarissa Rizal
I would like your support on a project that is happening this week until the April 12th Art Event at the Portland Art Museum in Portland. This year, out of 7 art works, PAM will be purchasing only 2 of the new art works for their permanent collection. There are 7 curators who have chosen 7 different artists. Each of PAM’s seven curators have selected a work of art that they hope will find a place in the Museum—whether an ancient work of Chinese art or the latest from a contemporary artist.
There is only one choice for a new Native American art work to be placed in the museum; the Chilkat robe is IT! — Remember, there will be only 2 artworks out of 7 that will be chosen for PAM’s permanent collection
My proposed Chilkat robe called “Reslience” is up for vote; as of today, the Chilkat robe is placed 4th in the running. That’s not quite good enough; I’ve got to be at least 2nd in the running – here’s your chance to play a role in influencing the Museum’s permanent collection AND here’s your chance to vote for a Chilkat robe to be added to their Native American art collection AND here’s your chance to help me support myself with this Chilkat robe commission for this next year!
Go to the Portland Art Museum’s website at the address below and click on:
7 Curators, 7 Choices <https://www.portlandartmuseum.org/curatorchoices>
Scroll down to the image of the Chilkat and click on “more” – you may view the video and/or read the description by Deana, the Curator of Native American art. Scroll down and click on the “vote” button – this will automatically place your vote for the Chilkat robe!
I truly appreciate your time and support in placing a new Chilkat robe in the Portland Art Museum!
Remember, you must vote asap by April 10th(?) – time is of the essence.
Gunalcheesh! (Tlingit for “thank you”)
Mar 5, 2013 | Latest Art Projects, Ravens & Eagles, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
Assistants to the curators at the Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon hang “Resilience” to be photographed for P.A.M.’s website. The painting on canvas is the “pattern board” for a Chilkat robe Clarissa is proposing to weave this year. There’s the possibility the Portland Art Museum may commission this robe. (Photo by Kate Damon, P.A.M.)
Design Narrative by Deana Dartt-Newton, PhD, curator at the Portland Art Museum:
“The Chilkat Robe, an enduring symbol of Northwest Coast Native cultures, has remained an icon of Native American art through time. Today, fine examples of Chilkat robes can be seen right here at the Portland Art Museum.
Chilkat robes, a complex form of tapestry twining, are the best-known textiles of the Northwest Coast. Emblems of nobility, they are prized for crest significance, fine workmanship and spirituality. The labor-intensive process to create a robe includes spinning wool and cedar bark warp, dyeing weft, then weaving the blanket. The abstract designs of crest animals on Chilkat blankets fill the entire design space.
In the Resilience design, Tlingit weaver Clarissa Rizal, student of Master Weaver Jennie Thlunaut of Klukwan, will illustrate in a commissioned traditional Chilkat, a narrative about colonial impacts on Northwest Coast Native cultures.
Within the central design field, Eagle and Raven symbols dominate, as they continue to form the foundation of culture – the clan system. Rizal expresses adaptations for cultural integration and survival by incorporating logos of the Native corporations and organizations “giving flight” to Native rights and sovereignty. The right and left panels contain symbols of Western influences integrated into lives of Native people including museums, institutions, and mining represented by the pair of hands holding the gold pan.
A powerful bridge between the traditional and the modern, the Resilience robe will set the stage for an exhibition in 2017 highlighting continuities and change among the art forms of the Northwest Coast. The picture of balance and symmetry, the Resilience Chilkat is modern expression woven in traditional form and represents the powerful bridge we need to bring our historic collection of Northwest Coast Art into the 21st century.”
Read about Clarissa’s design description of this robe is in a previous blog entry: http://www.clarissarizal.com/blogblog/?p=2914
Feb 11, 2013 | Latest Art Projects, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
“Resilience” Chilkat robe “pattern board” draft – copyright Clarissa Rizal 2013
I think it’s either brave of me to reveal to the world a Chilkat pattern board I recently designed, or I am plain stupid. Is it taboo to show a pattern board of a Chilkat robe I am planning on weaving this Summer? Will someone steal this idea before I get around to weaving it, or do a rendition of it? Am I “jumping the gun” and sabotaging the energy of actually weaving this robe by sharing the pattern board? Anyone want to share your thoughts on this?
I have wanted to weave the idea of this robe since 1985; I finally got around to drafting up the design – I actually have the full-size “pattern board” – just the design field (without the borders) measures 48″ w x 28″h. The following is the design meaning:
“Resilience” is a “document” depicting icons of Western influences that changed our Northwest Coast indigenous peoples during the past 300+ years, and Native logos reflecting cultural integration and strength.
The Icons and their meanings:
• ships – Russians, Spanish and English explorers/traders
• double doors flanked by columns – museums, collectors, anthropologists
• pair of hands holding the gold pan – mining, western monetary system
• cross – Christianity, missionaries, organized religions, boarding schools
The Logos and meanings:
• Eagle and Raven represents the clan system-the fundamental foundation of the culture; also represents the Tlingit and Haida Central Council (logo) established in 1935
• Within each wing, logos of the ANB (Alaska Native Brotherhood) established 101 years ago in 1912 and the ANS (Alaska Native Sisterhood) were first indigenous civil rights groups in the U.S. – these two organizations gave “flight” for indigenous rights
• Within the chest of the Eagle and Raven, the Sealaska Corporation logo, 1 of 13 Regional Native Corporations of Alaska spawned from the passing of the Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) in 1971 – these organizations reflect the “heart” of the present-day cultures’ integrating western ways of living and conducting western business while maintaining cultural values and ethics
• Tail – the new “rudders”; the new institutions created to assist in archiving, preserving and perpetuating the Native cultures of today; depicted is the Sealaska Heritage Institute (logo) established in 1980.
I plan on including Ravenstail weaving patterns in the “water” behind the ships and in the white “pillars.” I’ll also weave Ravenstail here and there in the robe. It’s fun to incorporate the Ravenstail weaving patterns into the Chilkat robes.
Feb 3, 2013 | Latest Art Projects, Tlingit Culture Accentuated, To Market To Market |
A ball of Chilkat warp (still in the process of being spun) and in the background prepared strands of wool
A couple of friends of mine are providing the service of spinning warp for all you Chilkat and Ravenstail weavers who don’t have the time (nor the inclination?) to spin warp for yourselves. Place your orders now to be placed on our schedule.
The definition of e.p.i. – “ends per inch”
PRICES: Chilkat warp – $2.65/yard Ravenstail warp – $2.25/yard (Prices do not include shipping, handling and insurance)
ESTIMATED AMOUNTS FOR PROJECTS (varies according to size of project and size of warp) – below are estimates of yards using the standard size of 10epi:
* Chilkat or Ravenstail robe – 1000 yards
* Chilkat or Ravenstail apron – 250 to 300 yards
* Chilkat or Ravenstail leggings – 200 – 250 yards
* Chilkat or Ravenstail bag – 60 to 100 yards
* Chilkat or Ravenstail headband – 80- 100 yards
* Chilkat or Ravenstail pouch – 30 – 50 yards
Standard sizes of Chilkat warp – Ravenstail warp is spun the same but without the cedar bark
You may place your orders for Chilkat and Ravenstail warp by either emailing me (clarissa@www.clarissarizal.com) or giving me a call (970-903-8386 – and yes indeed the area code is 970).
We will also be creating a “warp bank” – we are optimistic that we can keep it continually stocked for sudden immediate requests!
In the near future, we will open a “Chilkat Store” on my website to provide Chilkat and Ravenstail products including Chilkat and Ravenstail warp, weft yarns, various size weaving looms and bags, simple weaving kits, spinning supplies, etc. Currently, I am in the process of recruiting the spinners, dye-ers, woodworkers, etc.
We will keep you posted to our progress! In the meantime, Happy Weaving!
Jan 7, 2013 | Honoring Others, Latest Art Projects, Ravens & Eagles, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated, Tools-of-the-Trade |
After drafting the pattern in pencil, then I outline with a black Sharpie marker
Have you noticed that even though I may be weaving on a Chilkat robe for a year or two, I do not ever show the process of me weaving on this blog until AFTER the robe is completed? The reason is because I was taught by my teacher Jennie Thlunaut that whenever Chilkat weavers are weaving a robe (as opposed to an apron, headdress, leggings, etc.), that we are not to publicly show the robe to the person(s) who has commissioned the robe. Another Tlingit taboo? I don’t know. While I was weaving with Jennie, I gave up asking her the question “Why” every time she told me certain Chilkat “guidelines.” I remembered that the elderly folk of that time period and before did not explain the “why” of things – you just did what you were told, and that was that.
Using the Sharpie marker, I fill in the form line. I used elements from a couple of robes. This is a Diving Whale with an Eagle in the right side of the body and a Raven in the left side. – The far right design elements are called the “filler.”
I apologize that I cannot show you the process of weaving this robe. My goal is to finish by May 1st this year; then I will post a sequence of photographs.
Jan 5, 2013 | Adventures of Rear-Mirror Rissy, Latest Art Projects, Showing Off |
I taught my granddaughter how to cut with scissors last year when I was making collages; she’s two years old. Here she cuts confidently a Life magazine of McGovern (the 70’s!) to apply it to her collage sitting on the table at the Museum of International Collage…!
Mother and child inspect the first collage; not too much criticism though – it will be included in the exhibit…I dare say, I think she may be the youngest contributor to the museum’s collection and exhibits(!?)
Jan 1, 2013 | Latest Art Projects, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
Crayon sketch #1 is prototype for one of several paintings to do this year…
Last year in February 2012, my friend Lis Saya gifted me a box of “woodless” colour pencils (more like crayons); she thought that pencils without the wood were fascinatingly unique so she bought herself a set as well. During a concert, we sat together and put our sketchpads to use! I’ve posted a few sketches from my drawing pad; these will be used as “patterns” for my next few paintings this year…
This one reminds me of the coloring of overlapping shapes we’d do in Kindergarten, so I call this one “Kinder-ed Spirits”
This line drawing reminds me of the red earth canyons in the Southwest with varying levels, boulders and pebbles…just ink on paper
One of my very first charcoals in a long time; this reminds me of seaweeds and bull kelp…sometimes I just doodle and these are the things that come out of me…these kinds of drawings allow me the freedom to just play. They are not structured, purposeful, sophisticated art for example, the button robes and Chilkat weavings. I like the structure and the playfulness of both ways of being and doing.
And hey, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Nov 7, 2012 | Class Act, Latest Art Projects, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
Back in 1983, I was commissioned by SEARHC (Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium in Juneau, Alaska) to create a poster design for their alcohol rehabilitation program – “Step Into the Light” – we hand-silkscreened an edition of 50 prints. – This image is a painting on a wooden box
I also did a version of this design into a full-size buttonrobe that SEARHC owns for their “Raven’s Way” program. Over the years, I have noticed other versions of this design that other artists have gladly used; I decided that I would do the same thing! I will be teaching my very first button robe class held on Vashon Island, Washington State and I am basing the class pattern on this original design. Like the designs of old, when they were good, there were versions of them done in a variety of mediums…by the original artist!
The design tells the story of the “Box of Daylight” where Raven “steals” each box from the chief of the Nass River (in B.C.) that holds the sun, moon and stars; Raven then opens each box and breaks light to the world.
This design shows Raven being the actual box; the lid of the box is open and it is simultaneously Raven’s head with the Sun coming out of the box. The chief is the profile face within the main body of Raven. Three potlatch rings are shown on his brow.
Drafting up the button robe pattern based on the original design – will be used as the pattern for a button robe sampler class I am teaching this coming weekend in Vashon, WA
Nov 6, 2012 | Honoring Others, Latest Art Projects, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
In honor of my cousin, the late Pat Mills from Hoonah, Alaska, for the upcoming koo.eex (pay-off party), I drew an ink & acrylic sketch of Pat, as if dancing in a Chilkat robe that could have been his – the robe includes his infamous “FV Mary JoAnne” sailing along with salmon and halibut
With my friend Cecil’s assistance, we printed 88 copies of the “Mary Joanne Chilkat Robe” as gifts for Pat’s koo.eex coming up on November 17 in Hoonah, Alaska. Why print an edition of 88? Simply because that’s all the paper I had. This printer is the Epson 7880 24″ model. I’ve had it for about 4 years, however, I find it difficult to make time to print all that I want to print. There is only so much time in 8 days a week!
Nov 2, 2012 | Latest Art Projects, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated, To Market To Market |
“Totemic Mosaic #001” is part of the group exhibit opening November 1st at the Quintana Gallery in Portland, Oregon. Other artists include Alano Edzerza, Shaun Peterson, Paul Rowley and LessLIE Sam.
“Quintana Gallery celebrates its 40th anniversary with a year-long series of exhibitions that honor its past, present and future. The last in this series is a group show of the next generation of artists who are carrying native art forward with contemporary eyes and firm roots in tradition.” These images in this blog entry are a few pieces created for this show.
“Totemic Mosaic #004” — I have made about 5 (maybe 6? – hard to recall) of these “mosaics” since this Summer. They are on hand-built curved canvasses. They are fun to create.
“Totemic Mosaic #005” – this photo gives a little bit of perspective on the curved canvas theme.
