This month marks the 17th year of our collaboration!
So we can’t help but reflect on some of the changes we’ve experienced over those years. In 1999, the world still felt large and the pace of life seemed slower. Computers were in use, but mainly for creating spreadsheets, processing data and writing documents. Since the World Wide Web was generally in its infancy, the telephone was the technology we relied on for communication. At the time, as artists, we didn’t have much use for what the computer had to offer. We wrote messages and notes in long hand, kept a record of our sales in a ledger, and sketched in our notebooks. If we wanted to advertise one of our exhibits, it meant spending several hours stationed at Kinko’s, cutting, pasting and copying to create ads, flyers and postcards.
Just a couple years into our work we started to notice how the computer was affecting the creative world. Contrary to what we knew and enjoyed about making art, in short time, advances in the technology altered the processes of some media, some of which hadn’t changed for decades or even centuries. Film photography was replaced with a digital camera and pixels on a computer screen. Hundreds of typography fonts could be accessed at the click of a mouse. The sketchpad was traded for computer design programs and a touch pad. And hand produced pages of a portfolio were converted into a website.
What we didn’t realize when we started creating our fiber ‘paintings’, was how the process we developed would become a respite from the fast pace of every day life. When beginning a fiber painting, we watch while the composition slowly unfolds. The meticulous process of cutting and sewing the pieces and layers of fabric require all our attention. Our reward for the work is the contentment we feel as the fiber painting carries us through the weeks and months spent developing its narrative. When we step back from a newly finished piece, we can recognize the moments of time we were present only to the work, dissolving the activity that rushes around us. It’s a slow art form that draws us in. It invites us to meditate on its existence, to reflect on the past, or to drift into the future that exists beyond the horizon.
When we formed our studio 17 years ago, we couldn’t have imagined what our work would mean to us today. With the creation of the roughly 250 fiber paintings we’ve made so far, we’ve watched and embraced growth and change, while letting the art anchor us in the spaciousness of the present moment.
Here’s to a thrilling 17 years, and to at least 17 more!
Above: Blue Hills, Fiber with overstitching, 34 x 38” framed.
This piece and other slow art fiber ‘painting’s are available on our website.
I live in San Diego during the winter, so I miss Art Walk. I really enjoy your e-mails and the chance to see pictures of your work. You can be sure that I read everyword. Thanks. See you this summer. Pat Peckham
Hello Pat! We’re very glad to know we can still ‘visit’ with you, even when you’re 1,000 miles away in San Diego. We’re great fans of your winter city, and are happy to think of you there enjoying its lush and succulent landscape. Between Central Oregon and SD, what a wonderful world of contrasts you live in! Thank you for reading our journal, and for saying hello. We look forward to seeing you in the summer!
I love reading your thoughtful, inspiring words. If ever you decide to work in another medium, I recommend writing!
Thank you so much Virlene. We hope we don’t repeat ourselves too much, but we just feel so incredibly fortunate to have our little of corner of space in this world. It delights us endlessly, and we can’t help but share our impressions. Thank you for reading about it, and for the VERY nice compliment about our writing. We appreciate your encouragement, and hope if we ever do any formal writing it will serve to enhance the art, and vise versa. We’ll see what happens… thanks for the nudge Virlene!
Congratulations on 17 years! The work that you both create is so unique and beautiful. Here’s to the next 17 years!
Thanks so much Kelly! Since we go so far back, you know we speak to your life too, when we acknowledge all that can, and does, happen in so many years. Many days we just feel lucky, other days we can feel all the hours of hard work it took to get here. But there’s nothing more satisfying knowing that we did indeed break our own personal trail, and hopefully there will be much more of it to go. To all of us, here’s to the next 17!
I agree with Virlene — if you ever get out of the fabric arts, consider writing! Love your art, love your blog.
Thanks for the vote of confidence Lenora. It’s really nice to know you our enjoying both forms of our expression. We hope we’ll have at least 17 more years to offer you both. Thank you Lenora for joining us through both!
It is so nice to hear about your slow art. In this fast paced, high tech world many would miss the experiences you enjoy. The hue and feel of the fabric, making design decisions, letting the piece evolve. The results are always wonderful and even more so now that I have greater appreciation of your technique. Thank you for sharing this.
We’re delighted we’ve been able to stay in touch with you Ginny. Thank you for responding to our journal. And we very much appreciate your compliment about our process and art, especially knowing you’re very skilled with the medium. It’s our hope that everyone has their own way of stopping time so they can breathe in and admire the things that bring them joy. Or maybe our work can do a bit of that for them, until they find that space. We’re happily guessing you’ve found yours.
What a wonderful, peaceful all encompassing escape.
Thank you for sharing 17 years of your individual and collective insight. Your work makes a difference.
Goodness Dan, your note made us teary eyed. Your words touched us deeply, as if to help us understand a little bit more why we’re ‘here’. Thank you for giving us the gift of your words.
Reading your lovely words describing your artistic life and the changes you’ve made to adjust is wonderful to read, slow changes and Slow Art. You write beautifully! I’m glad another 17 years are in your future.
Thanks for your kind words and your encouragement Vivian. It’s the most wonderful thing about getting a little older – gaining perspective and understanding for what truly matters is such a blessing. There’s a lot for us to be excited about, and we’re looking forward to seeing what unfolds in the next 17+ years. We look forward to sharing them with you!
Your words make me nostalgic. Your studio’s infancy was at the same timeframe when I was finishing college. When I think back on how I used to work then versus how everything happens now, it is truly astounding. Thank you for your beautiful words and your beautiful work.
It really is astonishing how much has changed in such a short time, isn’t it Wendy? Were you also an art student, or if not, are the changes in technology as relatable to your vocation?
Thank you for following us, and sharing the feelings our journal entry evoked for you. We appreciate knowing it’s meaningful to you.
I enjoy your artwork and enjoy your blog. Thank you for sharing both!
You’re very welcome Melissa. Thank you for spending some of your time with us.
insightful piece, it’s such a pleasure to watch your art work emerging, the themes you choose and the skill you use.
Thank you Ginny, we appreciate your interest in our visual story. As you know, we’ve been working on developing our art for many years, and it’s exciting for us because we are feeling the maturity that comes from dedicating so much time to the art. What’s to come next from this process excites us a great deal. We hope it does you too!
Happy Anniversary! The work you do is awesome and the art you create is inspiring.
Thank you Betsy. Thanks for coming into our lives and giving us more to celebrate!
Juniper and Fields looks down on us when we arehaving dinner! No matter how many times I look at it, I always discover some thing I hadn’t noticed before. We are so honored to have a piece of your artwork. After admiring some of your prints at Three Rooms Up at the Galleria in Edina, little did I know that some day we would have an original Lubbesmeyer piece of art in our home.
When you commissioned us Susan, you told us such wonderful stories about the trees and your appreciation of the landscape surrounding you, we knew right away the narrative we wanted to give your piece. We’re so pleased Juniper and Fields continues to tell you its story.
And, you reminded us how, once again, incredible it is to make connections like these. Never would we have predicted that each of our lives in Minnesota would bring us together here in Oregon. Thank you so very much for following our work, and bringing it into your home.
What a happy “chance” encounter when finding your work on Pinterest! Your art has blessed and inspired me. Thank you. I am trying to imagine what kind of sewing machine would sew through 17 or 26 layers. Can you help me with that, please? Thank you for delighting my eyes and heart.
Thank you for your compliment Ann, we’re glad you enjoy our work. We started with our Mom’s old Singer, so when it was time to replace it, we selected another basic Singer as its closest match. Besides having a workhorse for a machine, we find our best successes come when we are able to sew slowly, calmly and patiently. This, and fixing our stare just inches from the needle, does the trick.