Textiles

’anything but drab’ on view 
(4 more days) thru Sunday Nov 2
Fruitlands Museum,Harvard, MA
open Thursday to Sunday, 10am-4pm 

big thanks to Curator Christie Jackson
for inviting me to collaborate with her
& to make a project in a former
Shaker building 

--thanks to the Trustees ARC staff aka Archives
--thanks to Fruitlands Stewardship team
--thanks to all the behind the scenes Trustees staff & The Trustees
--thanks to Kate Wool for the stunning photographs
.
thanks to everyone that stopped by
to view the exhibition,
to fold paper into books,
to watch me dip my hands in an indigo dye bath,
to listen to poetry and
to hear us talk about color.

I'm so grateful. Thank you.

coerce color

coerce color from walls
onto stilled photographs

unexpected vibrancy
cool crisp containment

palest pink pegs
perfectly aligned

kerchief so finely woven
becomes a cloud

goldenrod echoed
chrome yellow

vibrant victorious
trip to the sun

ice blocks stacked high
palest blue indigo sky

geranium red dresses
azure blue aprons

slate drab bonnet ruffles
cobalt vests

golden butternut
great coats

buildings on a map

…………

Walking through Williamstown, MA, Look UP!! Banners by local artists grace the downtown streets! See all the banners, HERE.

Eyes on Art Town banner exhibition is a collaborative project of The Town of Williamstown, Williamstown Cultural District and Williamstown Chamber of Commerce. The banner exhibition is made possible with grant funding from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

madder cochineal annatto sappanwood, 2025, watercolor, ink, threads, photographs, arches paper

Join me this Saturday 20 September at Fruitlands Museum (Harvard, MA) from 11am-3pm for a drop-in dye demonstration —indigo, madder & goldenrod.  

I’ll be outside the former Shaker office, where you can view my installation ‘anything but drab’ inside.

an excerpt below of my poem ‘any color they could dye’ using dye names from historic dye books—



any color they could dye
 
reds of--
pink with French plums
cochineal and crimson
rose pink to peachwood
reds of pink paleness
pink white primroses
barnwood red with beetroot
scarlet berries with geranium
 
oranges
golden
turmeric
orange
 
yellows
of bark
of gold 
of brown
of yellow green
 
greens
wood green and yellow green
invisible and deep green
chem bottle and deep grass green
olive and pea and myrtle green
slate and blue green
 
blues
a Spanish fly
a blue fawn
a magazine blue
a chemical magazine
a royal a slate and a Prussian blue
a bluesoblack
a bluesodrab
 
drabs
drab drab drabs
reddish red
sandy
silver 
sage
salmon and dove
beavers and gloves
drab drab drab
 
purples
puce purple and crimson
deep purple deep maroon
logwood lavender lilac
fast purple fast maroon
 
browns
a very fast fawn brown
olive with claret brown
coffee chocolate cinnamon brown
damson

blacks
dutch black
imperial weighted
 
greys
of bark
of liver
of dark smoke
and batwings
and doves

indigo | goldenrod | madder | installation view photograph by Kate Wool

Fruitlands Museum, 102 Prospect Hill Road, Harvard, MA 01451 | 978.456.3924

yellow yellow blue blue  shiny
 
 
what does blue sound like
and chrome egg yolk yellow
or a pink mourning cloud
 
dark indigo weft
maximized to shimmer
jars your eyes
 
an ethereal
euphoric
emphasis
 
embodied into 
extraordinary
reverie

images: goldenrod at dawn, Mary Gartside’s Yellow colour blot, Polly Jane Reed’s Spiritual Map, The Holy City and chrome yellow in situ at the brick dwelling

pale sky blue
fluorescent sunshine
celestial gold
purple standard
cochineal pink
claret scarlet
cherry violet
chrome green
indigo blue
reddish yellow
slate drab

radiant rainbow

prototyping prismatic utopia
pages and poems

“A Journal Devoted especially to The Blue Dye Department [New Lebanon] commenced April 22, 1839 by Betsey Coply + Abigail Crosman and their First Year of Dyeing”

I am thrilled to be presenting at the annual Shaker Forum (April 25-27) Enfield Shaker Museum (Enfield, NH).

This year I will read poetry constructed from research—about hydropower & labor, maps & buildings, chrome green ‘bedsteads, biers, barrows, bowers,’ a roster of dye colors and indigo, taken from the Dye Journal started on this day in 1839.

Madder Red
Crimson Red
Scarlet Crimson
French Plum
Beetroot Red
Spiny Lobster
Barnwood Red
Peachwood Red

Fast Yellow
Woollen Yellow
Bark yellow
Gold Yellow
Dead Leaf Yellow
Ochre yellow
Lemon Yellow
Green Yellow

Orange yellow
Pale Orange
Apricot Orange
Tumeric Orange

21 March marks 
World Poetry Day &
International Color Day

The Shaker Sisters at Harvard MA recorded coloring (they wrote collouring) in their Journal.  Coloring meant dyeing. Dyeing is making color. Dyeing is possibility. 

This poem uses text from their Journal and will be part of an upcoming exhibition, ‘anything but drab’ at Fruitlands opening in May.

we collour
 
 
we color scarlet on stormy days
 
we color indigo when we are indefatigable
 
we color butternut   roses blooming abundantly
 
we color prusy blue pick some pease
 
we color logwood    smelling lilacs
 
we color fancy blue to match azure skies
 
we color slate silk with sicily sumac to match slanted rain
 
we color blue spirits for drab woolens
 
we color cochineal pink roses
 
we color purple standard
 
we color considerable

color 
on pages
in pigments
in dyes
in jars
on yards of thread
 
been reading Shaker 
manuscripts account books
and journals of work performed
 
been looking at collected
colors in jars
 
been working on a new book
project needing a rainbow of
threads
 

mending
 
a wellworn language
stray bits of sock yarn
scatter shot stitches
holding for now
beloved trousers
mended
 
these darned socks won my heart
a shared language
mended by Carmelite nuns
from Sheila Hicks’ collection
 
[Hicks image from ‘Sheila Hicks Weaving as Metaphor, 2006]
 
seek out Katrina Rodabaugh for her upcoming class ’On the Mend’

reds of cochineal and crimson
yellows of bark gold brown yellow green
greens invisible olive pea and myrtle
blues Prussian deep royal slate
drabs red sandy silver sage salmon and dove
purples crimson deep marron logwood lavender
browns fast damson fawn olive and claret
greys bark liver dark smoke batwings and doves

sending new year’s rainbows
joy and radiance for 2025
and thanks for your presence here

[studio doodle | work in progress for 2025 project
dye book from Harvard Shaker community]

setting the table
for new structures
for projects and places
and paper and poems
with color and watercolor
and natural dyes