21Dec/090
Jan Doyle in SO Rhode Island Magazine
Fiber Artist Jan Doyle thinks way outside the box and she blames it on being left handed. “I think with the opposite side of my brain – the illogical side” she laughed. Doyle, of South Kingstown, was always attracted to textiles but had trouble figuring out if it was due to texture or color. Judging by her work, color wins hands down. Knitting and crocheting from a young age she somehow knew she would she would end up weaving. “I was always fascinated with each individual thread” she said, “once you understand the thread you understand the cloth.”
After moving from hand needle work to machine knitting Doyle started weaving classes in 1990. She soon proved to be too out of the box for the traditional folk art. “I was referred to as the cuckoo in the weaver's class nest” she laughed. Chafing at the rules for formatting designs on graph paper before starting, Doyle just got started knowing that she could see 14 yards ahead to where the colors needed to be. Four years ago she gave up buying colored yarn altogether. Today she buys only white yarn and dyes it herself to achieve the colors that she truly wants.
She refers to her art pieces as neo-textiles; somewhere between clothing and costume. “I would love to see people become enamored of wearing something special, something that transports them to a different place.” Doyle's art pieces do invoke a feeling of ancient high priestesses and royals wearing ceremonial garb yet her simpler jackets and shawls are eminently wearable for everyday use. And then there is the 22 foot dinosaur that Doyle and her husband Steve collaborated on. He built the aluminum armature and she wove the covering fabric. Today it is housed at the Matunuck Elementary School.
Doyle, who jokingly refers to her business as CEA, or can't eat accolades, also produces mainstream items such as scarves and table linens but with that dazzling colorful touch. One new venture is to weave at weddings, having the guests choose the threads to add throughout the celebration and present the couple with a finished table linen at the end of the evening for a truly personalized gift.
She is an adjunct professor of weaving at URI, teaches at Slater Mill in Pawtucket and gives private lessons in her studio, Swords of Vavlkyrie. Yes she knows it is misspelled but vav means weaving in Swedish, and the Scandinavian style of double pick up weaving is her favorite. It's that thinking outside the box thing again.
Contact Jan Doyle at vavlkyrie@cox.net or call 401-742-0284 . You can view her favorite piece, “Queen Anaphylactic ” by visiting www.projo.com>lifebeat>art>view artist by name>Doyle, Jan
21Dec/090
Artist Cynthia Blair in SO Rhode Island Magazine
Jamestown artist Cynthia Blair's pastel work has the unique quality of being realistic and ethereal all at once. Viewing the pieces, especially the ones that include water, you get the feeling that if you touched the painting a ripple would appear that you would be able to step through and become part of the scene.
Blair loves the vivid colors and textures that she is able to conjure from the oil pastels. “I use very little fixative on my finished work so as not to muddy the colors” said Blair. “Because pastels are so easily smudged, the originals must be framed with glass.” Fortunately, the colors transfer well to print and Blair has started to print onto canvas, providing a new way to showcase her work.
Blair discovered RI when she arrived to attend RISD. Having grown up in a small, coastal area on Long Island she felt very much at home in Jamestown and decided to stay. A vibrant, curious person with diverse interests, Blair sampled a wide range of art styles and media before graduating with an illustration degree. Over the years some teachers tried to rein her in by telling her to focus on just one genre but she having too much fun to be corralled. “All of my experiences ultimately end up forming the whole of each work” she said.
Blair does illustration work such as logos, theater posters and murals but since picking up the pastels in 2002 she has been happily creating a body of work that evokes the small coastal town “feel” of both her hometown and her current home. Along the way she also returned to RISD for classes in website design and other art related computer programs. She brings her design skills to the websites she creates and especially likess to help other artists by creating sites that reflect their style and craft while promoting their work. Blair doesn't teach, but she loves to mentor younger artists and connect with artists of all ages to share ideas and solve problems.
Her latest project, stunning charcoal portraits of musicians, began as a fun way to help her daughter learn to draw. Being music lovers they decided to attend concerts and give the originals to the bands. In doing so Blair found that many musicians have charities they support so now donates originals and the proceeds from limited prints to the specified charity. She often donates finished pieces or offers of pet or human portraits to local charities as well. “I'm thrilled that some of my work is out there doing good things” said Blair.
View more work at www.cbastudio.com or www.cynthiablair.com or contact the artist at cblair7@gmail.com or 401-560-0030. You can also see her work at The Schock Gallery, 47 Conancious Rd. Jamestown.
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