The Nature of Things - Tapestries & Other Works
October 19 – December 19, 2020

JOIN US FOR A BOOK SIGNING of Tommye’s new book, The Nature of Things: Essays of a Tapestry Weaver - Thursday, November 19, 2-5:30pm, at the Weave Shed Gallery

Hambidge Fellow Tommye McClure Scanlin observes and responds to her surroundings for inspiration. Her primary artistic medium is handwoven tapestry, an ancient method of working with fibers to create images. As she seeks images and ideas to interpret into tapestry she experiences her surroundings as closely as she can. Photographs, sketches, paintings, and writings all are part of the research she puts into her work.

Tommye has been living in the southern Appalachian Mountains for most of her life and her surroundings are filled with the natural forms of the woods, streams, and fields. Her eyes are frequently drawn to the myriad details of the landscape and many of her tapestries are based on aspects of those details, simplified and enlarged in a weaving. In her work she endeavors to respect the beauty and complexity of the images found in nature and interpret those through the woven structure of tapestry.

Being a Fellow of both the Hambidge Center and the Lillian E. Smith Center has been enlightening her creative practice for many years.

Tommye McClure Scanlin is Professor Emerita, the University of Georgia, Dahlonega, where she was employed for twenty-eight years as an art professor. Scanlin was responsible for beginning the weaving and fiber art program at the school in the early 1970s, one that continues to this day.

After leaving a full-time teaching career, Scanlin increased her involvement with short classes and workshops. She has taught for fiber art guilds, and also at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, John C. Campbell Folk School, Penland School of Craft, and Peters Valley School of Craft. In 2009 she received a Life-Time Achievement Award for Crafts Education presented by the Georgia Art Education Association.

Scanlin is a juried member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild and Piedmont Craftsmen. Her handwoven tapestries have been exhibited both in juried and invitational shows internationally. Professional memberships include the American Tapestry Alliance (past Director at Large on the Board); Tapestry Weavers South (founding member in 1996); and the British Tapestry Group. She is a Fellow of both the Hambidge Center and the Lillian E. Smith Center, where she currently serves on the LES Center Advisory Board. She is also on the Board of Directors for the John C. Campbell Folk School.

Her book, The Nature of Things: Essays of a Tapestry Weaver, was published by the University of North Georgia Press in September 2020. A second book on design for tapestry is in the works for 2021.

Images from the show…