Exclusive Interview with Blair Treuer
(Marvelous Art Magazine January Issue – 2021)
Hello Dear Blair Treuer. Thank you for giving us the chance to Interview with you. Our first question is how the “Quarantine” affects your art?
The Quarantine has allowed me to really focus on my next collection of textile portraits. The portrait series that I am currently working on is very introspective and depicts an internal psychological journey, so staying home with my children, without all of the distractions and all of the social interactions of my typical daily life, and without the outside world dictating my schedule, it's allowed me go go deeper internally into the work that I am creating. This experience has really been a gift. That being said, I am used to being alone in my house while creating my artwork and now because of quarantine, I am juggling the responsibilities of raising children and helping them with their online education while I’m working so quarantine has also posed several challenges for my creative process.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what drove you to choose art as a career?
My relationship with fabric developed in a pretty unusual way. My children’s participation in a traditional Native American healing ceremony required me to make blankets as an offering. The process itself was spiritual for me. Because it was the only way I could contribute as a non- native white woman, I poured everything I had into those blankets. Honestly once the offerings had been made for our youngest child, I didn't know if I would ever sew again. The blankets were a tremendous amount of work, and as I made them, I couldn’t discern whether I was captivated by what I was creating because of what these blankets meant, what their purpose was, and because I loved my children so much, or if I was captivated by the process because I had found my creative gift. It’s become clear to me that all of that played a role. I taught myself this art form and I cannot let this love affair with fabric go. Though my work is no longer ceremonial, it’s very spiritual for me. An image comes to me first. Visions that haunt me, like a dream you've had that you can’t stop thinking about. Inspiration channels through me faster than my fingers can move. Only when piece is finished do I ask myself “What does this mean?”
My work is an exploration into the role Native American traditional cultural practices and beliefs plays in shaping the way my family sees itself collectively, the role it takes in shaping the personal identities of my husband and my nine children, and the influences or effect Ojibwe traditional culture has had on my own personal identity. As a white woman, the only non-native person in my immediate family, this exhibit is about my reflections as an outsider and about the emotional rollercoaster I often ride as I stand fixed on the outside, but privileged enough to look in. This exhibition is not just about the pieces of Ojibwe culture I’ve been allowed to see, but also what it’s allowed me to see within myself, and even to recognize what cannot be found there.
You mainly work with textile. Can you share a little bit about your creative process?
First of all, I am not a quilter, though many people refer to me as one. For me the word quilter assumes mastery of various sewing techniques. My sewing abilities are very minimal. I have lots of respect for master quilters and all of the skills necessary to do what they do, so I definitely want to make the distinction. I don’t sketch anything out ahead of time. I refer to photographs and videos of my children when depicting their facial features and the rest of the image, I just hold it all in my head while I work. I use fabric of varying textures, shapes, and sizes and place them on a large blank piece of fabric, like you would a brush stroke onto canvas if you were a painter. Most of the fabric pieces that I cut out and apply are about an inch in diameter, but many are smaller than that. Once I feel comfortable with my composition, I “draw” or stitch over the fabric with thread to permanently tack everything into place. I don’t measure anything, I feel it out instead.
My portraits are not intellectualized. What I mean by that is, in the image, in its construction, and as I sew it, I’m not thinking through the details or strategizing the piece. I just let instinct take over the best I can. As I’m creating the image, I don’t question or weight out options for conveying the image. I try to stay true to the image as it was given to me in my mind without thinking of ways it could be better or different ways it could be portrayed. And when I'm sewing it together, I’m not thinking to myself…”It would look nice if this stitch ran through the eye, under the nose, and turned around and came back to the ear.” Instead, I just start sewing and I take the stitching where it wants to go in the moment. What I love about using thread in this way is that it serves to blend aspects of the image and soften the rough or geometrical shapes within the piece, and it helps blend similar fabric prints to give the illusion that they are almost a continuation of one another. The thread also adds another layer of interest on the portrait. It’s been said that my portraits look like paintings, especially online or in print. I love that you have to take a closer look to understand what you’re looking at. The face is the only feature in my work that I approach with a high level of care and precision. The rest of the portrait is more freely created and the features of the body, hair, or clothing etc is often more implied and impressionistic rather than realistic.
Could you describe your normal day as an artist?
The face is usually the most stressful part of the portrait because it takes more of my concentration. So I begin the portrait with the face and I usually begin a new portrait at night when the house is quiet and everyone is in bed. I feel freer to go deep into the creative process at this time because not only is the likelihood of my work being interrupted very small, but at that time of day, there is nothing left for me to do. No housework, no one to feed, no kids activities, nothing scheduled (or unscheduled) that could disrupt my concentration. I don’t have to even be conscious of the time. I have found myself suddenly facing the rising sun, not realizing how long I’ve worked or how fast the time had flown by but I try not to do that too often so that I can carry out all of my other responsibilities. I honestly think that having a husband and children is the one thing that keeps me connected to a “normal" life when I'm working. I could easily be one of those creative types that don’t eat, sleep, or talk to anyone for days while I’m creating a portrait because I’m too engrossed with what I'm doing. Once the face has been created, the nature of my work and the environment I work in changes. From this stage of the portrait until it’s completion you’re likely to see kids playing, fighting, crying, singing, doing cartwheels, and creating their own art in my studio space while I work.
Can you give us a spoiler on what’s coming next for Blair Treuer?
I am really excited about the body of work that I am creating right now. Many of the images included in this exhibition are portraits in my new collection which I am still creating. In fact, many of the images on exhibition here are still a work in process and are not finished. This collection is about the transition from childhood to womanhood, and my muse is my daughter who is entering this stage of life. This portrait series reflects on what it means to be a child and what it means to be a woman, physically, culturally, and spiritually. This collection of textile portraits is titled, “Becoming”. As of now, I envision that this collection will contain roughly 23 textile portraits so I have a lot of work cut out for me. This portrait series will likely not be fully completed until some point in the year 2022.
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