Being asked to be part of a new publication entitled ‘Finding Your Thread’, was a wonderful experience for me – but it was so very much more.
‘Finding Your Thread’ was curated by Anne Kempton, Gallerist of Australia’s only fibre art gallery, Timeless Textiles in Newcastle. It also celebrates Anne’s 10 year anniversary of the evolution of Timeless Textiles.
David Eastman, a social anthropologist, writing the Foreword to the book states this: ‘Anne is a creative leader. A creative leader releases the energy and creativity of others to enable them to realize their capacities.’
But it’s so much more than that.
Anne had a vision for the gallery as a means of linking local and international fibre artists and facilitating their collaboration in exhibitions – but also of promoting fibre art as an art.
Finding Your Thread is also about her passion – her passion for showcasing the wonderment of fibre art as well as creating and nurturing an international community of artists.
Anne’s model of shared responsibility among a group of colleagues embodies the generative power of showcasing the capacities of a diversity of artists at an international level – and I think that’s the real power and success of what Anne has done, both with her gallery and within this book.
Anne has helped grow a community – and it’s a very much-needed community.
Finding Your Thread simply shares the stories behind twenty selected fibre artists – and as Anne says in her Introduction, she could write twenty such books.
And the message of those stories is remarkably similar – we can find ourselves, telling our own stories through making and creating.
Amy Lovat co-wrote ‘Finding Your Thread’, and my good friend Jess Jones designed and put the pages together. This book is not only visually stunning but offers images in a large format – something I really appreciate when looking at fibre art.
There are four sections to ‘Finding Your Thread’: Observing, Gaining Skills, Belonging, and Finding Your Voice. There’s also a section on the wonderful Wednesday Makers Group where women come together to raise money and awareness of important causes through a community of art and making.
Anne wants to use ‘Finding Your Thread’ as a call to action – for people to read these stories and be inspired to recognize that same voice within themselves – to be able to say, I could do that.
And that’s the magic of creativity. You just have to take the first step.
Order your book online, here.
