Ghandi Loved Textiles Too

During my first months in San Francisco, I spent many a late night on Angie's futon bed, watching the Chapelle Show and eating quesadillas. This era in our lives was marked by poverty and uncertainty for both of us, but as always, Angie found time for five disparate projects to devote her (minimal) free time to.

Waiting for psychic healings in Dolores Park one day, we signed up to do the AIDS ride. We never did it, although we would go on really long bike rides and give each other foot massages and eat ice cream afterwards. We even had a team name, in honor of Will Farrell's character in Starsky & Hutch (my favorite movie at the time): 2 dragons. Rawr.

Did I mention that Angie went through a yoga teacher training last year? Yes, she is one bad ass little lady.

How do you know Mel?
I met Mel through our mutual friend Tucker, who told many tales of a Laura in NYC. Tucker thought Mel would be interested in my band, Polkadot Chokealot. I first met Mel when she moved to Portland, in 2002 I guess it was… she came over to our house and thought we were all crazy! But we didn’t really get to be good friends until we both moved to San Francisco and were neighbors in 2004!

Note: I thought Angie was crazy the first time I met her because she looked like a muppet, dressed like a biker chic and was wearing a crimped pony tail extension she had purchased in Moscow named Naomi.

What do you do now?
I am a theatrical costumer. I design dance costumes and I also work in the costume shop at UC Berkeley. I work with the amazing and spectacular Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company, a multicultural group of teenagers in Oakland who co-create original pieces combining hip-hop, modern and aerial dance, martial arts, and traditional dance forms. As their costume designer, I collaborate with remarkable artists confronting challenging personal and social issues with hope and passion, eager to catalyze change through art. I also work with other folks (including Brian Boitano!), and take art + textiles courses in my free time.

Why did you come to the Bay Area?
My best friend Jimmy and I spent a couple spring breaks in SF, and decided to move here after college. We were living in Portland, where the job market was limited, and San Francisco offered economic potential as well as a thriving queer community/scene (depending upon your perspective). I was offered a paid internship at the American Conservatory Theater, so I moved!

Where are you going to school and what are you going to study?
I’ve been out of school for 5 years. I’m going to be beginning a MFA at San Francisco State University in the fall, focusing on Textiles, and I am very excited!

Why did you choose this area of focus and particular university?
My desire to work with textiles exists in the interstices of fine precision and expansive imagination. Stitching and weaving inspire me as social metaphors with deep mythological and cultural roots. Through craft, I feel rooted in history. I incorporate unconventional materials in my weaving, basketry, embroidery, and installations. I revitalize and rework lost crafts in my art, telling stories and building meaning. Fabric is as vital as the food that nourishes us; textiles protect us from the elements as garments or shelter and can transcend their functionality as vehicles for expression.

I am interested in making work about the inherent interconnectedness of peoples and cultures, and in textiles as a unifying medium for encoded communication. The cultural history of textiles and the stories they tell are intimate and vital. Drawing on this conceptual framework, my art engages textiles to challenge representation, articulate self-definition, and catalyze personal and social transformation. In selecting a MFA program it was important for me to stay in the Bay Area, be financially supported, as well as supported in producing the kind of technically proficient and socially engaged work I want to be making, and work with phenomenal faculty at an institution that offered Textiles as an emphasis (despite the contemporary craft rennaisance, textiles is not widely offered as a MFA focus at many institutions). SF State best fit the bill! I am very happy about my decision.

Will you have to do a final project?
Yes, I will have a thesis show. I have no clue what it will be about. It will be up April 2011; stay tuned.

What are you most excited about learning?
Everything! Weaving techniques + natural dyeing techniques specifically, and generally being a sponge to the vast knowledge + experience of master artisans.

What do you want to do with your degree?
Be a ever-socially-engaged fiber artist + have a craft school/eco village/ashram/lady land commune (working title: Woman Town). I want to (continue to) make social connections through sharing skills and collaborations, asserting my belief that art making should be encouraged in repressive and alienating contexts as a tool for transformation. Make the world a more beautiful place through making!

If you could have any job, what would it be?
Artist and teacher at Woman Town, and other magical locations throughout the world.

Why is art important to you personally and to our larger society?
We all need an outlet for our creativity. We need to express ourselves. We need to engage each other, tell our stories, and imagine our futures. We need to CREATE and creating art is creating change.

Do you think you'll stay in the bay area forever?
Not sure. I am ecstatic with the connections I’ve made here. But Lady Land is not affordable in the bay area… it might have to be further north, or maybe even in the southwest. (Please contact me if you have any ideas for this project. angiewilson18atyahoodotcom )

Where is the one place you most want to travel?
One? Mel!! I really want to travel to India and to Japan.

The person you most want to meet?
Gandhi. He was an advocate of hand spinning and weaving and made his own clothing, you know, amongst other amazing things that I also feel passionately about.