ANJI BARTHOLF
TAPESTRY ARTIST
ABOUT ME
I am an artist who weaves contemporary abstract tapestries on a six foot countermarche Cranbrook floor loom in my Sonoma studio. I began weaving tapestry in 2000 after a lifelong search for a medium that could fully express my particular visual language and way of moving and perceiving in the world. Tapestry became this form and everything about this medium engages me deeply. The inherent structure of the grid in weaving offers infinite variations for abstract compositions of rhythmic geometry, my primary source of visual expression. Colors and shapes of golden proportions arise from the grid organically and the sensation of weaving itself informs all of my tapestries.
The Process
Warping my six foot loom is a lengthy task, one that requires a steady focus and a great deal of patience as I wind on many yards of warp strands and thread the heddles and reed. I am preparing my canvas, so to speak, and also my hands and mind for weaving as every step becomes part of the final tapestry, a living, breathing, tactile expression.
As I tie on the white cotton warp threads to the front beam and begin to weave the weft colors of my new design, I am pulled into the contemplative rhythm of tapestry and the steady building of color and form. It is a dance with my loom as I stand and throw the shuttle, move the weft bundles through the warp shed, press the treadles and beat the weft into place. This slow, accumulative process imbues each piece with a sense of rhythms and cycles, of time and season, of growth and change.
