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East meets West: Marrying traditional art forms
WARM SPRINGS - The Gallery at Seven Oaks has announced the arrival of its "Mountain Seasons" collection of Tibetan rugs.
The collection, conceived by gallery owner Anita Back, is a collaboration between the ancient art of rug-making in Lhasa, Tibet, and the work of two Virginia artists, Peg Sheridan and Lucia Bakewell. The 5x5'6" rugs are rendered in soft, thick Himalayan sheep's wool, and represent the four seasons of Virginia's Appalachian Mountains.
The collection is the fruit of a lengthy undertaking by Back, who was inspired by the traditional Gangchen (meaning "land of snow") Tibetan rugs produced by InnerAsia Rugs and the landscape paintings of Sheridan and Bakewell.
"As a Virginia native, I have a special place in my heart for Virginia's mountain heritage and the Warm Springs Valley," says Back. "The traditional scenes depicted in our rugs not only portray the beauty of the Appalachian Mountains, but they also show how time stands still. Many of the farms here still look like they did in the 1800s."
Back loves bringing together two cultures with rich histories to create a new art form. "I'm fascinated by the idea that the gentle, rolling mountains of Virginia are being immortalized by artisans in the magical and mystical Himalayas."
InnerAsia's rugs are currently the only ones made in Tibet by local artisans for export. The yarn is handspun from Himalayan Highland sheep known for their dense, soft wool that has evolved in high elevations and a cold climate. The wool is hand-dyed in copper pots and loomed by skilled artisans in the ancient Tibetan tradition. InnerAsia Rugs is headed by Tibetan-born international banker, Kesong Tashi, who has made it his life's work to preserve and promote the cultural traditions of rug-making in Tibet.
Back chose artists Sheridan and Bakewell for the project because she loved their paintings of the local mountains and rural landscapes. Once the designs were completed, they were translated from the original artwork into computer line drawings and then enlarged to look like mega-size, coloring book pages. For several days after, Back, Bakewell, and Sheridan sat on the floor with the drawings and 120 wool samples representing the hues of the Gangchen rug palette, and selected the best combinations for each rug. The "coloring book" pages were then sent to InnerAsia's Vermont headquarters for computer-rendering in color, back to Virginia for approval, then to Lhasa, where the marriage of modern technology and ancient artisanship was consummated.
"The process was arduous, but exciting and well worth it." says Back. "InnerAsia's staff helped us tremendously at each stage ."
The collection is on display at the gallery and can also be viewed on the Web at www.thegalleryatsevenoaks.com.
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