Metal leaf & mixed media on wood panels, 9 x 9″/ec.
STATEMENT FROM THE ARTIST:
I have worked in many media while exploring ways to embody concerns about the environment. In seeking materials to express the sparkle and flicker of light in the landscape, I have used metallic and iridescent paints, colored foil packaging, mylar, glitter, mica, and broken lusterware china, to mention a few. But when I discovered Burmese
shwe chi doe tapestry, with its brilliantly colored hand spun metal and cotton threads, variety of hand-made, silver-coated, bronze sequins, and multi-colored glass beads, and other inclusions, I knew I had discovered a perfect medium for my work.
With grants from the Art Resources Trust, Connecticut Office of the Arts, private funding, and sales of my work, I have been to Myanmar (formerly Burma) six times, five of them month-long residencies, to work on
shwe chi doe tapestries with skilled craftswomen. Initially I would bring full-sized sketches to be traced onto canvas. I would paint in the background colors, and the craftswomen would apply the beads and threads I selected. Recently, however, I have worked alongside them, learning the techniques of applying threads, beads, and sequins. We have become friends, and I fear for their lives in the current illegal military takeover in Myanmar.
BIO.
If you have visited Bradley International Airport (Hartford, CT) you may be familiar with her work. A series of large panels
Planetary Conditions are permanently installed over the ticket counters, and her mobiles hang in the space of the ticketing hall.
She is in numerous permanent collections around the country including Yale University, St. Louis Art Museum, Cincinnati Art Museum, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Rose Art Museum at Brandeis, and Boston Public Library. Recent exhibitions include the Koerner Center at Yale, Mass MoCA, Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, and Art Chicago.
She has lectured and participated in panels at M.I.T., Harvard, Yale, Boston University, the New York Feminist Art Institute, College Art Association conferences, and many other venues.
Publications where her work is featured include
The Map as Art by Katherine Harmon and
Badlands by
Denise Markonish.
Articles and reviews have appeared in Art in America, Art News, The New York Times, Art New England, and The Village Voice.
Daw is Professor Emerita, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston. She has served on design teams for The St. Louis Light rail system and Boston’s Big Dig. She has a BA in Art History from Wellesley College and an MFA from Washington University, St. Louis.
www.LeilaDaw.com
