Although I find myself dedicated to technical skills within
weaving, I find myself even more drawn to the combination of contemporary art
combined with traditional skills. And, what better way is there to develop
traditional skills in weaving other than tartan? A world-wide symbol of weaving
using a 2/2 twill, a striped warp, and the repetition of the warp backwards as
the weft. Having always had a huge love for tartan, mainly started by my 13
year old self thinking the sex pistols were the best thing to happen to the
world, I was sold. Ever since then I’ve had the drive and need to be able to
create something I love. I find it extremely hard to like something and not
make myself learn how to do it. I can’t enjoy something unless I understand
technically how I could re-create it myself. Within a few weeks of re-searching
double-cloths and pleats, I had already started to weave using them as my
passion simply takes hold.
Alongside my passion for tartan, I have an ever-growing
interest in psychoanalysis, firstly inspired by the ways in which our brains
work. The connections, the fibres, the flow, the ways in which a signal is sent
that makes your body do things, it makes me weave. The way cloths can flow, and
repeat these signals. The way cloths can track those thoughts. When a fabric is
woven, the fibres are forever embedded, just like the motion of the fibres. Then
as I began to read more and more about psychoanalysis, I began to involve
Freud’s theory of making the “unconscious mind conscious” created to help with
anxiety issues. Does textile art work as a substitute? Can something like tartan
that’s used in comforting ways such as scarves and blankets, also portray
images of discomfort, and make people more aware of their unconscious mind by
secretly displaying imagery and patterns from within the brain? I believe so.
