A visit to the Porkies for Jenny Schu - August Artist in Residence

'She Can't See the Forest Through the Trees'

In late August I went out to the Porkies Folk School for a presentation by Jenny Schu for the Artist in Residence Program. Jenny is a bead and tapestry weaver form down state Michigan. She had just finished her two weeks residence at the Dan Urbanski Cabin in the Porcupine Mountain State Park. She put on a demonstration and informative program for anyone who wished to attend. I am happy to say there was a nice turnout for her program.

I first saw Jenny's work in Providence RI at the biannual Weaving Conference that I attended in July. One of her tapestries was in the member exhibit 'Lively Experiments'. her large tapestry was called 'She Can't See the Forest Through the Trees' about 30 inches by 60 inches. I tried to upload a picture from my Convergence CD but that did not work see above.
So this is the picture (below) I was able to take at her presentation.
Unfortunately it is not hanging so it loses some of its impact.  The leaves on the top were to hang 6 inches in front of the tapestry and they are all beaded open leaves.

'She Can't See the Forest Through the Trees' by Jenny Schu

 Jenny works from the backside of her tapestry in the
true tapestry technique.
She has been incorporating words into her tapestries from blowing up cartoons she creates on the computer with various font styles.

She works on a large floor loom for her large tapestries but shared with us work on a small tapestry loom she was using in the cabin with a head lamp for light. Jenny's themes are nature related therefore her interest in the wilderness Artist in Residence program.

Jenny has been beading since she was 8 years old so she is very skilled in her beading. Her work is thee dimensional and she uses a crayola clay that dries without cooking for her structures.

Jenny is an active member of the Michigan Handweavers Guild and the HGA representative for the guild. 

3 D tree branches are beaded over a clay form she created.

Jenny at the Porkies Folk School

Jenny's many beaded earnings

Beaded Pennants

 I did not get pictures of her beaded bracelets that were beautiful, they were lovely pieces of art.

 Her beaded leaves incorporate woven fabric in the center of the leaves.

 I really enjoyed meeting Jenny and seeing her work - Her skill with beads and weaving tapestries was very exciting. We are very lucky to have the Porkies Folk School in our area and the Artist in Residence Program brings in artists from around the country to share their experience of living and working in the wilderness park with campers and the local community. They have an artist share their experience once a month at the Park and are required to leave a piece of their work to be displayed at the Porcupine Mountain Visitor Center.