The Mark Adams symposium at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles

The San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles held a symposium June 24, 2012 in conjunction with the current exhibit on the wonderful tapestries of Mark Adams. Mark was a prolific San Francisco based artist who made paintings, design stain glass windows and, for the focus of this blog, he designed many tapestries. He studied with Hans Hoffman in New York City and was later intrigued by tapestry and went to France to study with Jean Lurçat.

 The five speakers included Melissa Leventon, Jean Pierre La Rochette, Phoebe McAfee and Rudi Richardson, who with Phoebe wove many of his designs at the Bethany Methodist Church in San Francisco, and another student of Mark's, Constance Hunt who gave an engrossing account of making a series of ten cartoons in ten days. The exhibition includes over 40 tapestries spanning many years of his productive life.

In the early 1980's I had the pleasure of meeting him in his converted firehouse and going to see the nearby studio where Phoebe and Rudi were weaving. I was amazed how few colors of yarn were on hand. He knew exactly which colors were needed for each project. His cartoon was a large piece of Kraft paper (?) over which he had pasted his design changes.  In some areas there were many layers reflecting his design process.

I always like looking at his tapestries because of the use of color, clarity of design, and simple joy of life. They usually look so simple but that is an illusion. A lot of thought, sketching, and patience went into each one.  I find them very inspiring.  His use of color is stunning.

 Here are a few of my favorites from the show.

                                     White Petunia  1978

                               Lotus , Sumatra   1989

                               Cabbage Leaves   1976

There is now a new catalogue raisonné of his tapestries which is a treasure trove of illustrations published by Stanford University Libraries.