Pulp faction
Fiber artist delivers paper for Smithsonian Craft Show
Chris Slatterly, Staff Writer
Montgomery County Gazette - Friday, March 31, 2000
reprinted with permission
On the Silver Spring street where Ellen Mears Kennedy lives, stately brick homes preside over charming hilly streets where blossoms drift, flowers bloom and swingsets wait in well-kept years. The Kennedy family is pretty typical, too: two little girls spend their days at school; their dad's a D.C. lawyer, while mom's the arts-craftsy type.
But something funny is going on in the garage. Straight noises, masks and rubber gloves, a cleansing whoosh of water. Mrs. Kennedy is definitely up to something.
But before you can say "Silver Spring Murder Mystery," it all begins to make sense. Kennedy is an artist, her medium, hand-made paper. Her work will be on display from April 27 through 30 at the Smithsonian Craft Show, a prestigious juried exhibition and sale of fine crafts and functional arts.
Here in Kennedy's studio, which spreads out from the garage into a couple of rooms in her home, she uses fibers made from mill scraps to create paper, which she carefully colors and positions into works of art.
"I create in the manner of a painter," she explains, "putting color where I want it. I'm not a designer, taking an idea and bringing it to life. It comes to life itself during the process."
The process begins with organic matter, abaca, to be specific. The Philippine plant fiber is a relative of the banana ("We know it in the form of tea bags," Kennedy suggests helpfully) and it's combined with cotton at the paper mill to create cotton linter. That's what is dropped into the water-filled Hollander beater, which looks somewhat like a shallow utility sink. The Hollander beater is a staple of the 400-year-old art of Dutch paper-making - hence the name. Two hours of pummeling in the Hollander beater and the pulp is ready to be pressed with the mould and deckle.
The kiss-off
Being a papermaker starts with learning a new language: from the "mould and deckle," the pulp gets "couched" onto the "pellon" with a good old-fashioned "papermaker's shake." Make a mistake and the pulp gets "kissed off" or tossed back into the vat.
Here in the impeccably clean and well-organized garage/studio, pink geraniums bloom under fluorescent lights. Studio assistant Jacqui Holmes points to the collection of green Wellington boots on the shelves that line the walls.
"It gets very wet when you're making paper," she says cheerfully. "Your feet get wet, your body gets wet, the studio gets wet. We usually squeegee out the garage at the end of the day."
That's OK, because in papermaking, wetness is key. The pigmented wet pulp on the pellon is pressed and piled with more and more layers. After pressing, the long, damp strips are folded and hung to air dry so their slight imperfections are accentuated. Finally the sheets are attached to a linen backing, where their colors and textures will form unique and exciting patterns.
"It's a crossover medium," says Kennedy of the handmade paper she has transformed into a series of artworks, many of them hanging in the sun-dappled rooms of her home. "Artists of all types can do something papermaking that's interesting for them."
Kennedy's own background is in dimensional fiber art; she grew up learning to sew and do fabric crafts with her mother, Harriet Mears, a Springfield, Mo., weaver and teacher. Kennedy was studying textiles and fabric art in graduate school - she holds a master of fin arts degree from the University of Michigan - when she started experimenting with papermaking. She studied under papermaker Peggy Prentiss at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine and apprenticed at the Pyramid Atlantic Studio, first in Baltimore, then in Takoma Park and later in Riverdale. And 11 years ago, she started her own studio.
Both sides now
There have been many achievements and honors between then and now. Most recently, Kennedy received a Maryland State Arts Council grant in Craft; and her show "Paper, Ink & Thread" at the Glen Echo Gallery this month was a success. Her inclusion in the Smithsonian Crafts Show at the District's National Building museum is quite a coup. Chosen from 1,657 applicants from all 50 states, Kennedy is one of just six artists from the Maryland/Virginian area to be featured in the show. The pieces in the show tend to be one-of-a-kind works in basketry, ceramics, fiber art, furniture, mixed media, glass jewelry, wood and metal. The creations Kennedy has made from her paper fit in perfectly, each a unique work lovingly crafted on its journey from Hollander beater to museum wall.
The works are deft combinations of art and craft, with colors ranging from earth to jewel tones. The way Kennedy places her handmade strips creates a kind of three-dimensional collage that combines the boldness of modern art with the soft, organic feel of a more romantic age. The paper gives the impression of undulating waves marching across the canvas.
"The colors change depending on how you look at the canvas," Kenney explains. "It's very interesting - papermaking can be used sculpturally, in a printed manner or in a painterly way. Or you can combine all three."
That kind of diversity seems to be Kennedy's goal, as some of her works are embellished with threads, some appliquéd with more pigmented pulp and some printed with ink using an intaglio [printing from an engraved design] process.
The variety suits her, this artist-in-the-suburbs, whose unique and brightly beautiful pieces paradoxically come alive in the dark garage. One can only wonder what's cooking in the attic.