What Repetition Makes
a community
Two weeks ago, I visited the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center in Tillamook, Oregon.
The space felt quiet and busy in the best way. People were present, but softly so. They moved slowly, looking closely, giving their attention to their work and each other without urgency. Telling stories and listening too.
*Artist list below the article.
In the current exhibit, I was first drawn to a stitched spider web, where cross-stitch patterns repeated again and again across the surface in between the web. The repetition was steady and deliberate, the kind of work that asks a person to remain with it longer than might feel comfortable. It held a patience and attention to detail that I recognize.
*Artist list below the article.
Another piece stopped me for a different reason. A small figure sat atop layers of mattresses, a reference to the princess and the pea, one of my favorite childhood stories. I have always understood her. I am sensitive to texture, to sound, to subtle shifts that others might not notice. In this piece, sensitivity was not a flaw. It was the point.
Elsewhere in the center, I watched people working. Some were spinning yarn by hand, a few were knitting, while in another room weavers moved thread through a loom to create fabric. Fiber became thread, and thread became cloth. The cloth would evolve into functional items. Through attention and practiced repetition, craft took shape. Nothing in their movements suggested hurry.
*Artist list below the article.
I also opened a drawer—there were many drawers to explore—and I found a vest made of paper. A vest, constructed from a material I do not usually associate with wear. I found it fascinating.
I did not take a picture, but I also saw small pinch pots made using rolled coils of fabric that were stitched together on a sewing machine using the zig-zag stitch. I wish I had picked up one of these small treasures.
What stayed with me most was the feeling of the place. The people who come to work here come for the community. They each have different approaches to making, different materials, and different histories. All were held together in one shared space. A quiet kind of community formed around working with textiles. A community that needs an infusion of young people, but persists with an elderly cohort.
There was no need to rush at the Latimer center, and no pressure to simplify or focus on just one type of making. A visitor, like me, could stay and look or stay and sit and make along with the locals present. If I had known, I would have brought my knitting and sat for a while…
*Contributing Artists from the Latimer Center: Marilyn Anderson, Stephany Anderson, Allison Barton, Rolf Birchfield, Joanne Benningfield & Rolf Birchfield, Rhoda DeGiovanni, Emily Fladstol, Teri Fladstol, Jenny Francis, Glenna Gray, Margie Howard, Lori Kaiser, Nancy Larsen, Nguyen Le, Wanti Luft, Linda Machuta, Jon Rodriquez, Marilyn Roossinck, Pam Russell, Arlene Sachitano & Linda Stark, Kim Schauss, Nita Spencer, Barbara Ward, Carol Weber, Liz Winsche & Tamara Yingling
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