Tess Murdoch

Name: Tess Murdoch

Studio location: Based in Sackets Harbor & Brooklyn, New York

Website / social links: tessmurdoch.com, @tess_murdoch

Loom type or tool preference: Macomber Ad-a-Harness Floor Loom 

Years weaving: 2.5

Fiber inclination: Natural fibers + found materials (often repurposed or salvaged)

Current favorite weaving book: How to Weave a Navajo Rug and Other Lessons from Spider Woman by fifth-generation Navajo weavers, Lynda Teller Pete and Barbara Teller Ornelas published by Thrums Books

 

 

1. How did you discover weaving and was what your greatest resource as a beginner?

My weaving origin story is synonymous with fashion. As a kid, I would pour over publications like FRUiTS, Nylon and i-D, studying the way garments could transform a figure, their mood and their atmosphere - how they could amplify the wearer or let them speak softly, just by highlighting the delicacy of a drape cut on the bias, the translucency of a plainly-woven chiffon, or the use of color and texture. I was completely entranced and seduced by fashion and the larger-than-life worlds that could transcend a page.

My passion for textiles manifested when I started interning for Doris Raymond at her iconic vintage store, The Way We Wore on La Brea Ave. in Los Angeles, California. I was only 15, but The Way We Wore and the textile library and archive next door that Doris started was where I really started studying apparel firsthand - how it changed over the course of each decade, what a weave was and what a knit was - natural fibers versus synthetic, and looking at how each garment was dyed as well. Each piece told a story - not just about the wearer, but about global history - about socio-economics and what resources and trends were prevalent at the time. This was a vital time for me as I pivoted from fashion design to pursuing textiles - I came to realize that what excited me most about fashion was often the design of the material itself. Life took many detours during and after high school, but I gratefully found my way back to textiles. 

2. How do you define your practice – do you consider yourself an artist / craftsperson / weaver / designer / general creative or a combination of those? Is this definition important to you?

I like to consider all these areas interconnected and malleable. I never received a formal education in textiles beyond participating in studio-based programs; so I recognize it as a field with infinite disciplines and specializations - thus, I usually feel as if my personal practice is one in which I am rummaging around putting years of research, an assortment of techniques, materials, and humor together - with some of these areas of concentration becoming more pronounced at times. I currently work as the senior trend analyst for the oldest color forecasting company in the country, The Color Association of the United States, which has been hugely influential in how I archive and research topics of interest.  

3. Describe your first experience with weaving.

It wasn’t until a little over a couple of years ago that I was able to take an introductory weaving class at the Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn. TAC taught me the basics of plain weave, structure, and dressing an eight harness floor loom. Consumed by the process, I made warp after warp after warp, afraid I would lose the momentum or forget the steps. I was lucky to have access to looms while pursuing my MFA in Textiles at Parsons School of Design and could explore weaving in more depth while creating my thesis work. When I moved up to northern New York for a year-long artist’s residency in October of last year, I was able to adopt a gorgeous (albeit formidable) 64” Macomber floor loom and have since been able to challenge my comfort zones a bit more.  

 

4. What is your creative process, from the initial idea to the finished piece? Are there specific weave structures, looms, or fibers that are important to your process?

I studied painting, drawing and art history as an undergraduate which influences how I approach my work today. Color and weight guide the initial processes followed by an intuitive compositional approach. Because I am still such a novice when it comes to weaving, I keep my structures simple and often stay within the realm of plain weave - maybe spicing it up with funky warps, twills, structurally unsound floats, supplemental wefts, and density play. I still find plain weave to be endlessly fascinating and infinitely inspiring when it comes to building a library of color stories and textural languages. I have tried some double weaves, but as I am more invested in how the cloth I produce will later interact with the secondary context I put it in, (often an assemblage piece), I am totally at peace keeping my weaving process visceral and improvisational for now. 

5. Does your work have a conceptual purpose or greater meaning? If so, do you center your making around these concepts?

With weaving, it always comes back to materials for me. I try to only source natural fibers or if synthetic, they are salvaged/repurposed, and I try to dye as much as I can myself - often harvesting my own dyestuff with my mentor Susan Haldeman, or using natural extracts from companies like Botanical Colors or Maiwa that I know uphold integrity. I try to think about the circular economy of the pieces I make; what were/are the material’s life cycles? The ideas around output and waste are rapidly changing and I am trying to ask questions about those themes in my work in addition to creating a piece of aesthetic value. I look to indigenous knowledge systems and technologies, as well as to resources like Fibershed - which continually honor land stewardship and challenge ideas of scaling in industry.

I also revisit Anni Albers’s writing about materials quite a bit, including this typescript of a statement by Albers when she was a member of a panel called “The Art/Craft Connection: Grass Roots or Glass Houses” at the College Art Association’s 1982 annual meeting in February 25, 1982, she said…"What I am trying to get across is that material is a means of communication. That listening to it, not dominating it makes us truly active, that is: to be active, be passive. The finer tuned we are to it, the closer we come to art.”

6. What is your favorite part of the weaving process and why? What’s your least favorite?

One of my favorite things about weaving is its legacy - each culture and civilization has produced cloth throughout history or worked with topical adornment, and that is one of the deepest connections I can think of to ancestry and the global web we all weave. Creating cloth reminds me, at my core, of our infallibility and connection to one another. It humbles and gathers and champions mindfulness. I often overthink all other areas of my life, but when weaving, I feel stripped of the limitations of identity I normally carry. It is curiously a very empowering practice - from its demanding physicality to its minute technicalities and everything in between. Few things feel as great as pulling a finished weaving off the loom. 

I think the intimidation factor around weaving still weighs heavy on me - although anyone can pick up sticks or a found object and start a mobile tapestry loom to create their own cloth, few are taught they can. Access to knowledge about weaving and the fiber arts is still a very privileged field of study in many areas of the world, with many stereotypes to overcome. I do think that is changing though and am excited by what I see as growing community-centric, fiber-related initiatives.

7. Do you sell your work or make a living from weaving? If so, what does that look like and how has that affected your studio practice?

I do sell my work — I have mostly been working on private commissions since graduating last May, but am going to start posting pieces to my Instagram + website to sell. I am always hesitant to do so as it feels vulnerable to open that portal up, but I recognize it is often healthy and productive to be uncomfortable. I have been approached by both interior and apparel designers who envision diverse applications for the textile pieces I create and those are exciting ventures I want to pursue in the near future. That being said, I am trying to think of ways of sharing my work in more intentional ways, moving off of platforms like Instagram - whether that be by putting out a newsletter or through a more collaborative platform like Are.na that champions sharing over “likes”.

8. Where do you find inspiration?

Oooo, a weighty question. I find inspiration in the way the quality of light changes with each season, how everything at dusk becomes illuminated — how light lets the edges of the world soften or harden at different times of the day. 

I find infinite inspiration in storytelling - in the power of being transported no matter the medium. Whether it is the non-linear narrative of a Fellini film or looking to activists like Janaya Khan who are amplifying the voices of those silenced. I recognize the difference between feelings of inspiration and feeling jolted into action — storytelling for me is the anchor that grounds and humanizes. My practice this past year in lockdown has turned into one centered around research and archival work, rather than solely producing pieces. I think I recognized a deep need to listen - to read and digest the wisdom and experiences of those wiser than me. I think this has been a way for me to stay connected in an activated way. I believe the threads of prose I ingest daily fold into my weavings and making processes.

9. What other creatives do you admire – weavers, artists, entrepreneurs – and why?

We are so bombarded with stimuli from social media these days that it is often rare to see the process of how someone comes to a finished product; whether that be a book, album or painting, etc. The pace at which something is made public can skew the effort and iterations it took to make it a thing of substance. I admire creatives who make efforts to showcase those layers, even if it means less or slower visibility in the short term. I find that my friends Bri McGrew (The Universe Conspires), María Elena Pombo (Fragmentario), Ren MacDonald Balasia (Renko Floral), Ivy Haldeman, Petra Szilagyi, and Jacob Olmedo have all built beautiful examples of expansive practices - I refer to them often.  

In addition, I was lucky enough to befriend the amazing Mary Madison when I lived in Colorado Springs years ago - she wrote the book, Plantation Slave Weavers Remember: An Oral History, which I recommend to anyone and everyone. I try to read multiple books concurrently as it helps me build associations - I am currently reading Lawrence Weschler’s interviews with the artist Robert Irwin, Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, with my friend Mars (Found Documents) which has been insightful - alongside Robin Wall Kimmerer’s incredible book, Braiding Sweetgrass.

I have also been doing deep dives into the work of artists David Hammons, Sonia Delaunay, Diedrick Brackens, Rowan Renee, Betye Saar, Deana Lawson, and Günther Uecker to name just a few. 

10. If you could no longer weave, what would you do instead?

Play the cello — a dream!

Do you have any upcoming exhibits, talks, or events the community should know about?

I was asked by the wonderful Laura Moseley, Founder of Common Threads Press, to be a guest artist — sharing occasional Instagram posts about artists I admire who bring different perspectives to the world of textiles. I will also be having a little show at the end of the summer showcasing some of the work I have been developing as an artist-in-residence and will be sharing about that in the near future.