About our Project

Westies is a group of 12 female fiber/fibre artists that was formed during the pandemic with communication through Zoom. Westies predominantly live in the western part of the United States and Canada and are all members of Art Cloth Network (ACN): a juried group of 30+ fiber/fibre artists from the United States and Canada (http://artclothnetwork.com). 

To get to know one another better and have a greater creative outlet during the pandemic, the Westies began the 12 Cycles challenge in January of 2021—a SUPER Round Robin. Our round-robin involved circulating and responding to a growing stack of visual ideas that arrived without verbal or written commentary or explanation. Each artist had time to develop a new idea to add to the group based only on what was sent to them, and without knowing what the final collection would be.

The Westies version of this project:

• There are 12 fiber/fibre artists in the Cycles group.
• Each artist produced a 12” square piece with an extra inch around for the final assemblage. 
• Each piece used materials and techniques of her choice.
• Each piece also needed to be lightweight and travel well.
• Each artist had 6 weeks to conceptualize, create, and ship their piece to the next artist.
• Every 6 weeks each member received a box with a growing collection of squares to add their work to the Cycle. Pizza boxes were a popular choice for shipping because of their size.
• At the end of the project, each artist received the final 12 pieces—the first piece that was created by them in Round 1, plus 11 pieces inspired by their original.

A complex spreadsheet was designed for mailing (see above). The format avoided mailing to the same person repeatedly while allowing everyone to have a square from every other participant in a random order. Each member enthusiastically received a different developing series that presented new challenges and inspiration every six weeks. This allowed enough time for mailing packets internationally between the US and Canada. 

Each new packet asked the artist to look for connections and create a path forward — always a subtle invitation to the next recipient. The artist responded to color/colour, materials, techniques, imagery, message, textures - whatever spoke to her in each packet she received. Like the “telephone game” where a whispered message morphs at each iteration, so it was with the artworks. Responses to that first and then subsequent additions moved in unexpected ways throughout the entire time of the project as the pieces journeyed from artist to artist.  

After 18 months, each artist received her original square along with the eleven response pieces to that square. Together, the Westies created a dozen unique series of 12 twelve-inch artworks, a total of 144 pieces! 

There were a few near glitches along the way. The person who created the spreadsheet was the only one to mail her pieces off to the wrong recipient. There was potential for water damage to a box left out in the rain by a mail carrier who had apparently not read the weather report. Nothing was damaged since the artworks had been wrapped in a strong plastic bag inside the cardboard box. Several packages got held up by Customs but were released after a few nerve-wracking days.

At the conclusion, each artist had the challenge of individually arranging her series into a coherent whole. Some chose to create a 3-D folding book, some made panels, while others chose to hang theirs in columns or other configurations.  

This project shows the breadth and depth of a complex collaboration between 12 fine artists over the course of 18 months and thousands of miles. The process of organizing, responding, creating, mailing, receiving, stretching, and finally, assembling speaks to the cyclical nature of collaboration and artistic development over time. Every six weeks we took up the challenge to focus on our art, develop new ideas, try out techniques, and to honor this collaboration. Remarkably, everyone completed the project despite whatever else was happening in their lives. The results are compelling.

A catalog of the project can be found at https://www.blurb.com/b/11320294-12-cycles

12 Cycles, a non-juried show, will be exhibited in the Eddie Rhodes Gallery at Contra Costa College, San Pablo, California, January 2023. Additional exhibition venues are being planned.