Murmuration Starling.....Kennita Tully

All images Kennita Tully

I like to describe where I live as “on the edge of the Kansas prairie.” My studio is an addition that we built onto our home about 10 years ago. It’s a wonderful space full of light with only sliding glass doors and a short rock wall separating me from the Flint Hills tall grass prairie. When I’m not weaving, I’m often walking that prairie, sketching the prairie, or photographing in the prairie!

I first began to weave tapestry in 1976 in the textiles program where I was studying art. I continued into the 90’s, then stepped away to pursue a career in Knitwear Design. I returned to tapestry weaving wholeheartedly in early 2018.

When we met in Sedbergh for the Waterline exhibit, I declined from being a part of another collaboration so soon.  I joined in about 6 months after it had begun, missing a lot of the initial overall design phase. The base colors and shape of each tapestry had already been determined. The inspiration for my contribution to the project came from an overall mood more than anything else.  I did initially attempt to follow a cartoon, but chucked the birds and clouds about 6 inches into it.

The delight of this project was most definitely the actual weaving of it. I love color blending and once I got going on it, you might say it just seemed to “take flight!” I was going to say that the biggest obstacle I faced was simply beginning. That did take several starts and involve a lot of unweaving. However, as I alluded to earlier, once I got started, it was sheer delight. And now that I’m at the finishing stage, I would have to say that’s definitely the biggest difficulty: backing the tapestry to support shaped edges yet keeping it light enough for shipping is not an easy task.

I hope “Murmurations” brings joy and a sense of freedom when viewed. And respect and awe for the world we live in and the many collaborations existing in nature

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