Artist: Dolores S. Slowinski, Detroit, Michigan, USA
Interview 92
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Interviews published by Gareth Bate & Dawne Rudman.
Biography
Dolores Slowinski grew up in a supportive, culturally rich, Polish American neighbourhood on the West side of Detroit, Michigan, USA. The family celebrated holidays with an orgy of creative expression. These traditions imbued Slowinski's life with colour, texture, dance, music and song, flavours and aromas in the security of a large extended family.
Slowinski received her elementary and high school education at the hands of religious orders of women who incorporated art into many aspects of the curriculum while encouraging artistic expression in the students. In college, Slowinski studied biology and chemistry at the University of Detroit, but switched to fine arts at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan after a brief sojourn at the Society of Arts and Crafts, Detroit (now the College for Creative Studies.)
Slowinski has a BFA in weaving and ceramics from Wayne State University and for many years served as an arts administrator and freelance writer in addition to being a wife, mother and caregiver. Since 1997, Slowinski has returned to studio practice choosing thread and paper as her most recent medium of exploration.
Slowinski's cultural background coupled with science and fine art is a skill set that allows her to create a new vocabulary for art made in Detroit. Dolores' website.
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Artist: Dolores Slowinski. 5' 1", 165 lbs., white, female homo sapiens. Photo: D. Slowinski. |
Tell us about your work?
My Threadlines are quite simple. I use thread as line to make abstract drawings on paper. Usually I make random machine perforations in the paper to outline areas first. The infill stitching is done entirely by hand. You can't tell that the drawings are made with thread unless you get up close.
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Threadlines Sketchbook: 73, 4.5 in H x 6.75 in W, filament silk sewing thread, 8 colours, on Medioevalis cardstock; Large perforations made on an industrial hemstitching machine; infill stitching/drawing all done by hand using a beading needle. Photo: R. Hensleigh. |
From where do you get your inspiration?
My process and life experiences are my inspiration. I work intuitively. I begin by selecting a piece of paper. The paper itself can inspire my response by its colour, texture or size. The shapes outlined by the perforations may also elicit a response. My background in science, experiences as a writer, not to mention events in my life, bring many words to mind as I am working. Sometimes I pause to do research online to find out where the stitches and words are taking me, and this usually pays off with a title. The exception to this was the 110-piece installation I created in 2010. Working to meet a deadline, I had no time for online research and word play. I simply numbered the pieces in the order in which they were made. What happened, however, was an incredible blast of ideas that inspired more ideas. The stitched shapes or textures in one piece inspired the next, which led to another and another. The finished installation looked like I had pulled pages out of a sketchbook and stuck them up on the wall. And THAT is what inspired the title: Threadlines Sketchbook.
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Yellow Fever, 4.5 in H x 6.75 in W, waxed embroidery floss , 4 colours, on Arturo cardstock; Large perforations made on an industrial hemstitching machine; infill stitching/drawing all done by hand using a beading needle. Photo: R. Hensleigh. |
Why did you choose to go into fibre art and how did you decide on this medium?
It took me a while to figure out that fibre was my most comfortable medium. I always liked working with my hands. I loved making mud pies, icicle sculptures, and batik dyeing Easter eggs with my extended family as a preschooler. I enjoyed all the cut-and-paste projects of elementary school. My high school science projects were more sculpture than science. So by the time I got to college, even though I was in a biology and chemistry curriculum, I always had art on my mind.
My father, a machine repairman, worked with his hands and had always encouraged play that developed fine motor skills. His father worked with a needle and thread in making shoes. My mother did hemstitching. I had ancestors in Poland who were weavers and spinners. Working with my hands was programmed into my DNA.
In art school, I naturally gravitated to clay and fibre: materials I could touch. After college I settled on weaving because a loom could fit into a home studio much more easily than a potter's wheel and kiln. But once I started working as an art administrator, even weaving was set aside. Writing became my portable medium. It wasn't until caregiving of aging and dying parents became my main pre-occupation that I returned to art making to preserve my sanity. I explored papier-mâché sculpture, oil pastel drawing, beading and sewing. It was that reconnection with needle and thread that sparked my work with thread and paper. It was as if I'd come home again.
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Threadlines Sketchbook Installation, 4' h x 8' w, 110 individual hand-stitched Medioevalis and Arturo cardstock using single strand waxed embroidery floss and/or filament silk sewing thread. Each card measures 4.5" x 6.75". Photo: R. Hensleigh. |
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Detail of upper left corner. |
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Detail of upper middle area. |
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Detail of lower middle area. |
What specific historic artists have influenced your work?
Diego Rivera, Mexican muralist, (1886-1957) and the Rouge Manufacturing Complex in Dearborn, Michigan have been indelibly stamped on my consciousness since childhood and have been responsible for my employment, friendships, my love for Detroit, and even how I work.
The Polish American neighbourhood I called home was within two miles of the Rouge. As a little girl, I accompanied my parents on a tour of the Rouge. In the 1950s the tours took you into all areas of the complex including the catwalks around the blast furnace areas to witness molten steel being released from the furnaces into large ladles that then poured the steel into molds. It was HOT! I had also been taken on tours of the GM plant in which my father worked. It was noisy, dirty and smelled of machine oil and plating vats. My Polish American culture, school and home surroundings as well as these tours became a part of my visual memory. At 13, I took my first trip to the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) with a friend. When we walked into Rivera Court and I saw the huge Detroit Industry Murals for the first time, I had flashbacks to those factory tours and had to run crying from the room. I could smell the molten steel, the sweat of the workers, and feel the heat. In that instant, Rivera taught me the power of art.
In 1983, almost fifty years from the time a Ford photographer accompanied Rivera through the Rouge as he sketched the machinery and workers who would inhabit the murals, I was working in the DIA photography department. I was given the task of sorting through those documentary photos and nitrate negatives matching them up, numbering them, and identifying the industrial processes in them as they related to the images on the walls of Rivera Court. Later, I worked as the photo researcher for the catalogue accompanying the Diego Rivera Retrospective at the DIA. Through these experiences I gained a deep appreciation not only for Rivera's skillful use of line in composing the Detroit Industry Murals, but also for the research he conducted in preparing his sketches and actual sized-cartoons for the murals. I learned about planning, laying out compositions, and the methodical workmanship required to render an idea, all of which became useful in my own work decades later.
World of Threads Recommends: |
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Threadlines Sketchbook: 94, 4.5 in H x 6.75 in W, waxed embroidery floss, 6 colours, on Arturo cardstock; Large perforations made on an industrial hemstitching machine; infill stitching/drawing all done by hand using a beading needle. Photo: R. Hensleigh. |
Georgia O'Keeffe (American, 1887-1986) was always of interest to me because of her New York paintings. Their linear angularity has subliminally influenced some of my large vertical pieces.
Louise Nevelson (American, 1899-1988) made an impression on me with her walls of wooden boxes. She made something monumental from smaller components. I accomplished a similar feat with Threadlines Sketchbook and am about to work on a series that I will cut apart after stitching to be able to take command of a wall even more dramatically.
Emily Carr (Canadian, 1871-1945) impressed me with her fearlessness in not only painting but in making ceramics and rugs as well as writing and traveling alone. Reading her biography enabled me to move from clay to fibre to writing as my own life responsibilities changed.
Arthur Dove (American, 1880-1946) is a favourite painter because he really understood abstraction and made it comprehensible. I am aware of his use of line to break up a composition in the same way that I use the machine perforations to divide the space on a rectangular sheet of paper.
World of Threads Suggests: |
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Threadlines Sketchbook: 102, 4.5 in H x 6.75 in W, waxed embroidery floss, 8 colours, on Arturo cardstock; Large perforations made on an industrial hemstitching machine; infill stitching/drawing all done by hand using a beading needle. Photo: R. Hensleigh. |
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Threadlines Sketchbook: 84, 6.75 in H x 4.5 in W, waxed embroidery floss, 8 colours, on Arturo cardstock; Large perforations made on an industrial hemstitching machine; infill stitching/drawing all done by hand using a beading needle. Photo: R. Hensleigh. |
What specific contemporary artists have influenced your work?
On a trip to Poland in the early 1970s I was privileged to meet Maria Łaskiewicz, (Polish) a fibre artist/sculptor and mentor to Magdalena Abakanowicz, (Polish, 1930) Łaskiewicz was quite elderly, perhaps in her 70s or 80s at the time but still making art. I look to her now as an inspiration to keep going.
Also during the 1970s, Jack Lenore Larsen and Mildred Constantine published the seminal book on fibre art, Beyond Craft: The Art Fabric. What an incredible publication! What artists of vision and courage. Of the artists included in the book, Magdalena Abakanowicz (Polish, 1930) continues to inspire me with her monumental sculpture. She has moved from fibre to steel very successfully. She is an inspiration to work toward translating my work into other materials.
A trip to Dia:Beacon the museum and collection of the Dia Art Foundation housed in a re-purposed Nabisco factory in Beacon, New York, in 2006 was a revelation. Minimalist art massed together in individual galleries helped me to see an idea mutate and become intelligible. It was not like seeing a collection of isolated pieces scattered around one gallery in an encyclopedic museum…one of this here and one of that there. At Dia:Beacon, I saw a whole roomful of one person's work. I witnessed the evolution and resolution of a concept.
World of Threads Suggests:
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Precipitation, 4.5 in H x 6.75 in W, linen embroidery floss, 7 colours, on Arturo cardstock; Large perforations made on an industrial hemstitching machine; infill stitching/drawing all done by hand using a beading needle. Photo: D. Slowinski. |
Fred Sandback, (American, 1943-2003) the master of defining planes with a single strand of yarn, delighted me. I thought of him as I was embroidering an Easter egg on a notecard for fun. I pulled that thread through the paper and saw it in space and thought, "That is a line in space! A line! IN SPACE…Fred Sandback who draws in space with yarn…OMG…I can do this on paper!" That was a big AHA! moment.
Dan Flavin, (American, 1933-1996) used fluorescent lights to create diaphanous colour both because of the colour of the tubes themselves and the way the light bounced off the walls and floor. I can see this effect in my work when I use silk thread. If I stitch the thread in close parallel lines, the sheen catches the light and bounces it off the paper in a way similar to that of Flavin's work. At a recent exhibition I was delighted to hear a sculptor, who was closely examining one of my pieces, exclaim: this is sculpture!
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Threadlines Sketchbook: 82, 4.5 in H x 6.75 in W, waxed embroidery floss, 2 colours, on Arturo cardstock; Large perforations made on an industrial hemstitching machine; infill stitching/drawing all done by hand using a beading needle. Photo: R. Hensleigh. |
Please explain how you developed your own style and how do you describe your art to people?
Once I saw thread as a line in space, I decided to see what would happen if I used a straight-line stitch to create images. I am still exploring the line. It has been three years now and ideas are still pouring out of my head. Line has become the building block in my work. When I started working with larger paper, I knew I needed a long-arm sewing machine in order to accommodate perforating a 22 x 30 inch sheet without curling it to turn it under the presser foot. I contacted a tent and awning company and was referred to a commercial textile-processing firm. The John Johnson Co. in Southwest Detroit agreed to let me use one of their industrial sewing machines to perforate my paper. The willingness and generosity of the company president was astonishing. He put the machine and his foreman at my disposal. The women on the production floor came over to see what I was doing. When I explained my perforating and hand-stitching process to them, they immediately got it!
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Threadlines Sketchbook: 76, 4.5 in H x 6.75 in W, waxed embroidery floss, 8 colours, on Arturo cardstock; Large perforations made on an industrial hemstitching machine; infill stitching/drawing all done by hand using a beading needle. Photo: R. Hensleigh. |
Please explain in a little more detail the process you use for the hand-stitched drawings you create:
Threadlines has evolved from playful embroidery on paper to serious exploration of drawing over a six-year period, from 2007 to the present. After selecting paper, I use machine perforations to intuitively outline forms that are filled in with hand stitching.
I use beading needles with single strands of thread that I condition with beeswax so that the thread slides through the paper more easily and renders a crisp, clean line. Beading needles minimize the holes in the paper. If I want a very fine line with sheen, I use filament silk sewing thread without waxing it. To shade an area, I crosshatch the stitches just as you do with pen and ink. Thread has an advantage in that it doesn't spill, smudge, or blot! The paper I choose is fairly sturdy, i.e. card stock, cover stock or 150 lb., hot press, watercolour paper. It has to be able to support itself when I am piercing it with a needle.
I just start stitching. I never know what will appear, but I know that if I keep at it, something will appear and I will understand what to do next. Ilze Aviks calls this "mindless stitching." It is the way I work. Every piece is not only both a sketch of an idea and the finished piece, but it is also a two-sided drawing. There are the intentional lines on the front and the unintentional lines on the back, which make for two different images. I make the choice as to what side to exhibit.
The intentional lines always have a sense of order to them; the unintentional lines appear more chaotic. I think of the front as the culmination of an idea and the reverse as the captured energy it took to make the idea. With Damascene I mixed the intentional and unintentional lines together and came up with a looser, more energetic surround with a tightly controlled, stitched surface in the middle. Initially I had done a lot of stitching around the blade shape in the middle. I realized that I'd overworked the drawing and knew that I had to be fearless and take the risk of ruining the piece by ripping out those stitches. I was elated with the result. Removing the stitches left a texture of tiny holes that added an unexpected vulnerability to the piece.I hold small card stock in my hand when I stitch. Large sheets of paper are suspended from the ceiling and backlit so that I can see the needle coming toward the paper before piercing it. This becomes more important as the stitching density increases. This also affords me the ability to work standing or sitting, thus avoiding arm, back and leg fatigue.
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Damascene, 30"h x 22" w Single strand waxed cotton embroidery floss, 7 colours, filament silk sewing thread, 5 colours on Arches 150 lb. hot press w/c paper. Large perforations made on an industrial sewing machine; infill stitching/drawing all done by hand using a beading needle. Photo Credit: R. Hensleigh. |
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Detail center area. |
How does your early work differ from what you're doing now?
I began my return to studio practice very humbly. My early work took the form of collage or watercolour notecards that morphed into beaded jewelry, which grew into the Structural Diaries, oil pastel drawings, tea cozies and aprons. Please understand that I was working in a spare room at home and worked with materials I could hold in my hand. I was trying to make things that would sell to pay for the materials. I registered my business as Slowinski Studios using the plural of studio because of all the different materials I was exploring. I had brief flirtations with embellishing liturgical candles and creating liturgical installations; with making art dolls and three-dimensional felt forms. It was the hand stitching that brought my attention back to working with needle and thread. I progressed from stitching together fabric and felt to embroidery on paper to drawing with thread on paper.
My next body of work will be made on machine perforated 22 x 30 in Arches, 150#, hot press, watercolour paper. After completing the infill stitching, I plan on cutting the shapes apart, mounting them on Gatorboard®, and then directly on the wall to create a larger composition. Each component could be sold separately or the entire composition as a unit. This will allow me to use heavier thread or even yarn on the paper while eliminating framing. I also have plans for an outdoor installation that may take me in an entirely different direction. But it is still in the idea phase.
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Tephra, 6.75 in H x 4.5 in W, waxed embroidery floss, 4 colours, on Medioevalis cardstock; ; Large perforations made on an industrial hemstitching machine; infill stitching/drawing all done by hand using a beading needle. Photo: D. Slowinski. |
Can you talk a bit about the commercial viability of fibre art?
By commercial viability, I presume you mean selling enough work to support yourself.
Art is a fickle endeavour regardless of the medium. Your work can be noteworthy one year and completely ignored the next. You can have a modestly successful career but still be left with an overwhelming amount of work, or debt, to leave to your heirs, who may or may not be interested in any of it. Then what? I once jokingly suggested to a friend that artists should burn all their work every five years to generate demand. However, I'm not sure any of us would have the courage to do that!
Fibre is very appealing and accessible to people. We are wrapped in fibre all day long; it is comfortable. By the same token, I think its familiarity works against it. We are all a bit twisted as a result of the commodification of our work and its adaptation to mass production. Appreciation of handwork has diminished dramatically in our discount conscious, over-consuming, electronic media fixated culture. Ultimately as artists we make work, because that is what we have to do. It is a creative compulsion. It is a gift we want to share with a viewing audience so that we can gain some recognition. Like actors, we want the applause, to see our name on the gallery invitation. Selling work is the bonus.
Of all the artists working today, fibre artists could have the greatest communal impact. I can envision collaborations with choreographers and set designers to create costumes and back drops for performances; with architects, industrial designers, and landscape architects to create outdoor installations to shelter the homeless; build sun screens for outdoor seating to shield us from the burning sun or enliven dreary winter landscapes.
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The Great Experiment, 7in H x 11 in W, waxed cotton sewing thread, 7 colours, on dark blue cover stock; Large perforations made on an industrial hemstitching machine; infill stitching/drawing all done by hand using a beading needle. Photo: D. Slowinski. |
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Gout, 4.5 in H x 6.75 in W, waxed embroidery floss, two colours, on Arturo cardstock; Large perforations made on an industrial hemstitching machine; infill stitching/drawing all done by hand using a beading needle. Photo credit: R. Hensleigh. |
What advice would you give to someone starting out as a fibre artist?
I would advise a young person to explore as many aspects of fibre art while they are in school and have access to looms, fabric printing and dyeing studios, sewing machines, and other equipment or programs available in that setting. If they find that fibre is their passion, I would advise them to look at jobs they enjoy doing that could support their interest in fibre art. Only then would I advise them to pursue their passion for fibre on their own after college. It takes a while to spread your wings. In the meantime, you have to eat. I would advise a mature person looking at fibre art in the same way. Take a class at a community college or university or local art center before investing in any equipment or materials. Find your passion and pursue it. To both individuals I would say you have to be fearless, tenacious, determined, and persistent in applying yourself to your passion. Life has a way of obstructing your path and setting detours. Don't give up. You will eventually do the work you want to do.
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Appendicitis, 4.5" h x 6.75" w Single strand waxed embroidery floss, 3 colours, on Medioevalis cardstock; Large perforations made on an industrial hemstitching machine; infill stitching/drawing all done by hand using a beading needle. Photo Credit: R. Hensleigh. |
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Rupture, 4.5 in H x 6.75 in W, waxed embroidery floss, 4 colours, on Arturo cardstock; Large perforations made on an industrial hemstitching machine; infill stitching/drawing all done by hand using a beading needle. Photo: R. Hensleigh. |
Tell us about your studio and how you work:
I spent the summer of 2011 looking for a studio space outside my home in Detroit. I had a budget of $500/month that had to include utilities. I finally found space in the nearby northern suburb of Ferndale. Spaces in Detroit were either too expensive, cramped, lacked the amenities I wanted, or required an infusion of large amounts of money to make them habitable. I have a lovely 425 sq. ft. space with a large west-facing window on the second floor of a commercial building. It has daylight fluorescent lighting, heat, air-conditioning, a call back elevator almost outside my door, a cleaning service that takes care of the hallways and restrooms as needed, a kind building manager, and a wonderful landlord…for just under $500/month or about $12.00/sq. ft. It is heaven, a mere nine miles from my home in Detroit. The space allows me to put six large sheets of paper up on the wall at one time. I have room for a huge worktable built for me by my husband. I have storage boxes on rolling pallets made to my specifications under the table. It is well organized, cozy and comfortable. It gives me the space to breathe creatively. I try to get to the studio every day. If I am not there, I am at home working at related things on the computer. On the way to the studio I stop at a physical therapy gym to do a light workout.
At the studio I sign in as if I were coming to work. It sets the tone. I suspend a sheet of paper from the ceiling on my flexible easel (two chains hanging from the ceiling with a strip of lath stretched between.) Binder clips fasten the paper to the lath. Another strip of lath fastened along the bottom of the paper is tied to a workbench to hold the paper taut. I turn on my work light to back light the paper. I wear finger cots on four fingers of each hand and start to stitch. Finger cots not only help me grip the needle and thus reduce hand fatigue, but also keep the oils in my skin off the paper. I work standing or sitting to reduce neck, back, and leg fatigue. Floor mats around the workbench make standing more comfortable. I never have food or drink on my worktable or around my easel. I listen to jazz, classical, or world music as I work. I have an old armchair in my studio but I seldom sit in it. Usually visitors get that opportunity more often than I.
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Dolores at work stitching large Threadline in her studio. Photo: D. Slowinski. |
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Work table and suspended easel. Photo: D. Slowinski. |
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Suspended Easel for stitching large Threadlines. Photo: D. Slowinski. |
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Vapor Barrier, 22" x 30" Single strand waxed cotton embroidery floss, 6 colours, filament silk sewing thread, one colour, pearl cotton, 2 colours, mixed natural fiber yarn, 1 colour on Arches 150 lb. w/c paper. Large perforations made on an industrial sewing machine; infill stitching/drawing all done by hand using a beading needle. Photo: R. Hensleigh. |
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Vapor Barrier, detail upper right corner. Complete piece: 22" x 30" Single strand waxed cotton embroidery floss, 6 colours, filament silk sewing thread, one colour, pearl cotton, 2 colours, mixed natural fiber yarn, 1 colour on Arches 150 lb. w/c paper. Large perforations made on an industrial sewing machine; infill stitching/drawing all done by hand using a beading needle. Photo: R. Hensleigh. |
Where do you imagine your work in five years?
In five years I hope to have been awarded a Kresge Fellowship, executed an outdoor commission and have had a show outside of Michigan. It's important to keep dreaming.
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Disassembly, 22"h x 30"w Single strand waxed cotton embroidery floss, 6 colours, on Rives paper. Large perforations made on an industrial sewing machine; infill stitching/drawing all done by hand using a beading needle. Photo Credit: R. Hensleigh. |
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Detail of left side. |
What interests you about the World of Threads festival?
I am so impressed with the venues and variety of work that is shown in the World of Threads festival not to mention the online interviews. I have not been able to attend the festival in person, but the online pictures are wonderful. Just the fact that a community is so welcoming to fibre artists is quite incredible. I don't know of any festival like it other than the Surface Design Conference, in the US.
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Slipping the Trap, 30"h x 22"w Single strand waxed cotton embroidery floss,4 colours, filament silk sewing thread, 4 colours, silk twist, one colour, on Arches 150 lb. hot press, w/c paper. Large perforations made on an industrial sewing machine; infill stitching/drawing all done by hand using a beading needle. Photo Credit: E. Wheeler. |
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Detail middle left area. |
Is there something else you would like us to know about you or your work that we have not touched on?
I submitted to a call for submission for a Mary Schoeser book project from. The subsequent encouragement I got from Mary, a textile historian and curator, who chose my work for inclusion in Textiles: The Art of Mankind, solidified my commitment to exploring the concept of drawing with thread even further. The book put my work in an historical and global context that was both humbling and exhilarating.
Dolores Slowinski is featured in this book: |
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Threadlines Sketchbook: 91+90, 7 in H x 9 in W, 91 is waxed embroidery floss, 8 colours, on Medioevalis cardstock; 90 is waxed embroidery floss, 6 colours, on Arturo cardstock; Large perforations made on an industrial hemstitching machine; infill stitching/drawing all done by hand using a beading needle. Photo: R. Hensleigh. |
Do you have any upcoming shows?
My pieces, Disassembly, Root Stock and Slipping the Trap will be in "Always Something . . ." a juried exhibition at the Vogt Visual Arts Centre, 17420 S. 67th Street, Tinley Park, Illinois, USA from September 3-26, 2013.
In early 2014 I will have a solo show at Flatlanders Gallery, Blissfield, Michigan, USA.
In the fall of 2014, I will have a solo show at Grove Gallery, East Lansing, Michigan, USA.
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