Putting the Text in Textiles with Rosalind Wyatt

Two Artists Walk into a Bar

Thanks to a listener suggestion I hopped a train for West London this morning to meet up with calligraphy and textile artist Rosalind Wyatt. The way she weaves historic and significant text into some pretty cool ‘Oh my God, how did you get your hands on that’ pieces is something to see, but it’s the stories behind each piece that will really blow your mind. From Winston Churchill to Jude Law, her stories will make you want to hop a plane to London to see these works of art for yourself.

Our Guest Artist: Rosalind Wyatt www.rosalindwyatt.com

Our Host Artist: Carol McQuaid www.carolmcquaidart.com

Now follow me to Rosalind’s garden studio and get ready for some wind and inspiring stories. Thanks again Sandy Mair for the request, and if any of you readers know of another artist whose story you like to hear and you see on my feed that I’m headed their way, by all means send me a request. You can follow my travels on Instagram @carolmcquaidart.

In this episode you’ll hear about:

• How she came to have her magical Chiswick, West London garden studio
• Doing commissions for groups like Burberry
• Gabardine Canopy Tents, Virginia Wolfe and The Maker House project
• The New Craftsman Gallery where Ros shows her work
• Writing with a needle: her calligraphy background and how it made its way onto textiles
• I love what she has to say about building skill as a foundation
• The difference between working on commissions and personal projects “It’s a much slower process. It’s less intense, it’s more organic. You can let your selfwander a bit more. It’s much more contemplative.”
• “The thing about an artistic life is that it is free, isn’t it. So what worked in the past doesn’t necessarily work now”
• Follow this link to hear the David Tycho interview we talk about http://www.twoartistswalkintoabar.com/fire-rain-journey-extremes-artist-david-tycho/
• Her time with a Japanese Zen master and ancient Upanishad texts”Through the inner ear of a devotee I make my way into his soul and sweep it clean”
• Bhagavad Gita, Mahabharata and Shankara
• Bringing creativity and creative thinkers into business “we need to break down these barriers”
• We talk about the importance of traveling with a purpose
• Jude Law and his involvement in her “Stitched Lives of London” project
• The quote from Hamlet: “We defy augury. There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all. Since no man, of aught he leaves, knows what is’t to leave betimes? Let be.” – William Shakespeare
• The murmurration of starlings
• Great stories from her Stitches Lives Collection; of Sir Edmund Hillary, Winston Churchill, the moving tale of mental health campaigner Johnny Benjamin and more

You’ll find images, stories and more on Rosalind’s website at www.rosalindwyatt.com

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