One of only a few returning residents, happy to have you back Eleanor! 

Weaving on: Lou
Joining us from: Chicago, Illinois 

Tell us about yourself and what led you to the residency?

Like many other DWL residents, I learned to weave on the TC2 during my time as a graduate student at SAIC, and am now figuring out what it means to have this exclusive piece of technology at the center of my practice. I first came to Praxis this past winter and fell in love with the atmosphere of community. Currently in my work, I am exploring and wrestling with themes of assimilation, illegibility, visibility, belonging, protection and erasure, particularly as they apply to the strangely camouflaged experience of American Jews over the past 100 years.

Have you had any previous experience with Digital Weaving or Jacquard?

I fell into digital weaving in my first semester at SAIC in 2019, and like Alice in the rabbit hole I’ve been falling ever since… This is my second visit to Praxis, and before this I was the 2021 student Digital Jacquard Assistant at SAIC.

Any goals for the residency you'd like to share?

Approaching weaving with a painter’s mindset has always been a goal for spending my time at the loom. Thinking of things through a color and material perspective first has led me to what I would call an aesthetic “glitch” sensibility, particularly when cooperating with the TC2’s highly structured and orderly system of operations. My goal for this time at the loom is to slow down a little to get out of the frantic production mindset and really settle in to make improvisational and intuitive interventions.

You can find Eleanor on Instagram @eleanorgoegleinfrick or on her personal site www.eleanorfrick.com

What's up Amy!?

Weaving on: Collin
Joining us from: Twin Cities, MN

Tell us about yourself and what led you to the residency?

I needle-weave and knot abstract physical and psychological landscapes onto worn fiber artifacts, generally horse fly nets and fishing nets. With fishing nets in particular, I’m able to weave vertically or horizontally, alternately favoring warp or weft, which seems to translate well to the TC2. The handwork involved in weaving on nets is physically demanding, time consuming, and a bit unpredictable. The ability to expend more design energy upfront, sample it, and then complete a piece in a significantly shorter amount of time is freeing and exciting.

Have you had any previous experience with Digital Weaving or Jacquard?

Beyond a few online workshops in file design, digital weaving is new to me.

Any goals for the residency you'd like to share?

My immediate goal is to get to know the TC2 so I can be even more intentional and fluent the next time we meet, ultimately expanding my practice through creation of work that converses with my net sculptures.

You can find more of Amy on Instagram @amyusdin or on her personal site amyusdin.com !

Hi Gigi! 

Weaving on: Lou
Joining us from: Madison, Wisconsin

Tell us about yourself and what led you to the residency?

I graduated this May with my MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Fiber & Materials Studies department. While at SAIC, I had the immense privilege of working on TC-2 looms under the tutelage of (among many others) Melissa Leandro, Kate Smith, and Danielle Andress. My previous background is in photography, and I came to a fibers program specifically to figure out new, tactile ways of rendering photographic content -- because of that and my interest (okay, obsession) with found digital media and certain internet rabbit holes, the TC-2 loom is a wildly invigorating tool.

Have you had any previous experience with Digital Weaving or Jacquard?

Unfortunately, yes -- now I am addicted :)

Any goals for the residency you'd like to share?

I am hoping to continue my series of renderings of Google reCAPTCHA images (the little squares with stoplights, bicycles, etc that you click on to verify you're not a robot when you submit a form on the internet). I screenshot these tiny images and enlarge them into large-scale weavings.

Follow Gigi on Instagram @ggastevich, or check out her website! www.gigigastevich.com 

Welcome Jen Harris!

Weaving on: Collin
Joining us from: Cleveland, Ohio!

Tell us about yourself and what led you to the residency?

I work at the intersection of painting, drawing, textiles and installation, combining analog mark-making with digital vocabularies and handcraft to form queer pictorial spaces. I often use literal fragmentation – cutting up and remixing my own works – to explode binaries of depth/flatness and legibility/abstraction while exploring the shifting contours of the historical narratives and myths that color our perceptions of the world. In 2020 I began making colored pencil drawings that merge a grid structure with figurative imagery. The tapestry-like qualities of these drawings led me to weaving.

Have you had any previous experience with Digital Weaving or Jacquard?

I took Cathryn Amidei’s hands-on TC2 workshop in January. That was my first time throwing a shuttle (!) but I’ve since immersed myself in all things weaving and I’m excited to return to the loom with a much deeper understanding of weave structures.

Any goals for the residency you'd like to share?

My primary goal is to explore how I can use the TC2’s capabilities to translate formal ideas I’ve developed in my paintings and drawings into woven cloth. One way I plan to do this is by experimenting with combining multiple weave structures to create kaleidoscopic spaces and gestural marks. I’m also curious about how I might introduce improvisation to the digital weaving process, which seems to call for a fair amount of pre-planning. With this in mind, I prepared a painted warp with shifting color bands, to add some randomness into the mix!

See more of them on Instagram at @jenpharris and on their personal site www.jenpharris.com 

2023 has been a big year for Praxis...not only did we host our first ever digital weaving conference, Praxis & Practice, but we also acquired a SECOND TC2 with the help of The Cleveland Foundation. It has always been the missions of the Digital Weaving Lab to expand access to these looms. Two looms means double the workshops and residencies. This blog has been created to catalog all of the amazing residents & work they produce during their time here. 

Loom #1 (44" wide at 30 epi) has been named Collin
Loom #2 (30" wide at 45 epi) has been named Lou 

Stay tuned for greatness!!!