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About Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1960)
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1960 HERALD AND NEWS. KLAMATH FALLS. OREGON PAGE FIVE Creative Thinking Pays Off For Klamath Area In Modern Art Gallery Here By ROBERTA BLOMQUIST Klamath Falls and its surround' ing community is one of the few spots in the West which has the understanding . and the foresight . among its citizens to realize that through creative activity, and cul tural development, much of the desperation in the world today could, be avoided. By art activity . the meaning is not limited to vis ual arts alone, but to the whole field of creative arts literature, music, drama and dance. The people of this community have signified their stand on cre ative arts by allotting a park area containing a fine old house and , space . under beautiful old maple trees as . the site for the new art gallery. The old building is being con verted into workshop areas which include a meeting room, a cer amic shop equipped with wheels and kilns, a weaving room with looms, a room for painting, space for sculpture, a print room, dark room, as well as space for other arts and crafts. . To realize fully what this all really means, one has only to look at some of the statements con cerning world problems by great thinkers of today. Many learned professors and scholars, statesmen and students of psychology hold the theory which is so well de fined in the. following excerpt from a paper by Henry A. Mur ray, professor of clinical psychol ogy at Harvard University: "An emotional efficiency dis ease, a paralysis of the creative imagination, an addiction to su perficials this is the diagnosis I would offer to account for the greater part of the widespread desperation of our time. Paralysis of- the imagination, I suspect, would also account, in part, for the fact that the great majority of us, wedded to comfort so long as we both shall live, are turning our eyes away from the one thing we should be looking at the pos sibility or probability of co-extermination." ' The common language of the world has always been that of the arts. The great literatures of each nation of the world are as well loved and known by one nation as another. The great music of each country is played and loved bv. every other culture. The great paintings, sculpture and architec- lure are treasured in the world s museums without .prejudice as to what peoples originated the mas terpieces. Our world of individuals and na tions meets as one people in the arts. Since that apparently is out only point of agreement, it would seem loeical to give more time and space, as well as energy to developing the arts, to developing the creative imagination. The homo sapiens is driven by a romnulsiDfi to create and is tilled with a desire to hear, touch, taste and see a creation which is beau tiful. true and honest. Our present rivilij.itions are such, especially in America, that mankind has less and less opportunity and Incen live to fulfill this urge." Since the creative urge and imagination is an integral part ot man, he must produce or become a neurotic. He is bound by an urge, latent ihmiBh it mav be. to produce art in some form. To complete the neurological pattern he must display and exchange his crea tions with others,. In following such a pattern on world basis he may establish the understand ing Wfh. others which barriers' sf language, religion, politics, mores and geography make difficult. Perhaps the people of this com munity have not formulated a def inite philosophy on this subject; perhaps no one has an exact an swer, but that there exists here a strong feeling that something needs to be done about creative arts is evidenced by the effort put forth to plan and build a cen ter where people of this wide area can develop their ideas and where they can exhibit their work as well as that of others. With the completion of this pro ect, yet far from finished, this community must stand as an ex ample of what can be done by every area of like size. Already as others watch the progress steps are being taken to proceed in a like manner. School and homes, good as they may be. are not able to provide what a community art center can. Klamath Falls and the outlying community have rea lized this, and in so doing, have made an effort toward solving the problems of "the desperation of our time." Weaving Kept Alive In Pioneer Craft Of Hand Classes At Art Workshop ROBERTA BLOMQUIST hat worked consistently in the interest of the Klamath Art Association for many years and gave unstintingly of time to help raise match funds for the Art Gallery. Mrs. Blomquist heads the drama department at Klam ath Union High School. By DALE CUSTER It is appropriate that as part of the Centennial gift to the new Klamath Falls Art Center, hand- weaving, a former pioneer craft, is being generously included. There was a time in the past century when handweaving was done as very necessary part of day to day living when wool from the sheep or linen from the fields was pro cessed and worked into articles of every day use. Orchids to our grandmothers, who probably never even saw such an exotic flower, for their work in cloth making. Then came more abundant supply of machine weav ing which, while taking a load from our grandmothers, reiegatea ine old looms to the bam or store house. There were a few of the old rug looms in use to make worn out clothing into floor coverings even as late as the depression when many farm women supplemented the family income by weaving the neighbors' rags into rugs. In re cent years, there has come with our increased . leisure and aware ness of our heritage, a desire to revive some of the arts and crafts which produced so many lovely things while working as a neces sity. Fortunate is the individual who can restore the old loom the reed doubtless will have rusted any way, some parts may have been consumed by dry rot, a two-by- four may have been used to repair the shed but essentially the basic parts are workable. There is joy in an old loom and a responsiveness that a newly as sembled one does not have. Yet in many cases an old loom is not so accurate or so flexible as a mod ern one. Our modern loom makers have a feeling for functional beau ty that makes of a tool a lovely piece of furniture for a modern room or studio. Some of the old looms are such space consumers that an added room or loft is necessary to house them; hence we are unwilling to assign either time or space for such cumbersome objects. The new Art Center, setting aside two rooms for handweaving with five looms available at pres ent, is offering increased opportu nities for handweavers in this area. When one considers the re markable progress that has been made in past years with restricted facilities, it is encouraging to think what can be done with handweav ing in the next decade. An early workshop was held here as cjrly as li'51 when Mary Full ington of Seattle instructed a mini ber in handweaving. Some of our most devoted weavers became in terested at that time. In 195S David Hatch from the University of Oregon was here for a two weeks' course. Just recently in the fall of 1U57 Dorothy Anderson taught beginners class who worked on looms rented from the University of Oregon. There are many men and wom en in the Klamath Basin with weaving experience gained in West Coast colleges either in art courses or in work with textiles or cloth ing. Others have attended work shops in other sections of the country or have been instructed privately. There are many excellent books and periodicals available for the How-To-Do-It-Yourself individual- even correspondence courses There are local craftsmen quali fied to instruct or assist any would be handweavcr. Weavers are most exacting and at the same time most helpful to beginners who wish to learn. With looms being used increasingly in our public and private schools for arts and crafts, it would be a great help to our young people to be able to see weavers at work, use looms under skilled instructors and ex perience the satisfaction that comes from working with the basic tools of existence. Increasingly, in a time when more and more men work daily Ford Trucks Last Longer on the FARM See your Farm Truck Headquarter! BALSIGER MOTOR CO. Mmim mt ttp. Pk. TU 4-1121 with abstractions, it is desirable for each individual to have a hand craft as a starting point from which to grasp reality. There is nothing more real than stretching a warp thread and crossing it with a weft to make a useful article and a beautiful one. It is interesting that the expres sion "warped personality" applied to individuals whose tensions have become too great for normal ad justment is seldom applied to handweavers. Could it be that in this basic operation there is an experience so normal that it avoids warping personalities? Weaving in our hospitals for handicapped per sons is accepted and special looms and techniques have been devel oped to help these individuals. Traveling exhibits of beautiful weaving will be brought to the new center so that those of us who are Interested can have an opportuni ty to study and learn to appreciate these lovely things, and so we may be more discriminating in viewing machine made articles. 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