Below are some works that left browngrotta arts for new homes in the last few months.We are always pleased when art works we promote capture the imagination of a client or collector or someone who found us on the internet.

We then have the chance to tell them more about the remarkable artist whose work we admire.

We share the impetus behind the work when we have that information.

And, in an ideal world, they work is acquired and finds a new location.

A location where it inspires and delights.

To find something for your location, visit our website: browngrotta.com.

In our New this Week feature this past month, we shared works from our Spring exhibition, Field Notes: an art survey. First up was Hisako Sekijima’s 32 Selvages with 16 Ends. Always experimenting, this work resulting from Sekijima’s exploration of coarse Mexican dishcloths that were a kind of a four-selvage cloth made from one continuous thread. When she fully understood the unusual movement that made it, economizing repetition of passing a warp, she was “excited to have discovered a new rule hidden in such an ordinary-looking fabric.” She created her own weaving board with 18 rows of lines in two directions. She used a lightly processed fiber in varied sizes, peeled from ramie raised in her garden. She connected lengths each time she needed more, creating a stack of squares this way. “This very primitive weaving method reversed my pre-fixed judgments about weaving, she says, “and made me reconsider the relation of fabrication method and form of material.”

Misako Nakahira is an artist who exhibited with browngrotta arts for the first time in Field Notes. Her exploration of stripes began five years ago, inspired by reading Michel Pastoureau’s The Devil’s Cloth, which explores stripes in Western culture from the Middle Ages to the present. Originally, identifying individuals affected by plagues or those ostracized by society, such as prisoners and prostitutes, Pastoreau concludes that “stripes are patterns that establish order between people and space.” Nakahira uses stripes to explore social phenomena, including the “echo chamber” in which people encounter only opinions that agree with theirs, creating the illusion of intersecting orders among individuals who have never met in person. Towels O incorporates the colors yellow and orange, which, like stripes, signify “caution.” The layers created by the two-stripe patterns may appear to clash or harmonize depending on perspective, yet neither pattern dominates the other. Nakahira believes that using stripes as a motif—a universally understood and versatile form of expression—provides a way to view society from a broader perspective and interpret the times.

“My work is heavily rooted in ideas of time and space,”says Rachel Max. “For several years I have been exploring notions and forms that symbolize infinity. The Möbius loop and figure 8, both steeped in metaphorical associations, have become my starting point. Each new piece becomes a variation on previous works, an amalgamation of different ideas set to challenge when the infinite becomes finite.” Rift explores the relationship between interior and exterior space. Edges that are almost touching suddenly split apart.The crack that emerges, interrupts the surface and casts doubt on whether this is a never-ending form.

The fourth work for June was Play of Opposites, by Pat Campbell. Campbell’s work is influenced by the Japanese shoji screen, traditionally made of rice paper. “Paper is a natural choice of material for my work. It provides the translucency I am seeking in constructions. It also provides a thin plane of material that is easily shaped and accepts the reed, wood and paper cord that I apply to it,” Campbell says. “Paper is exciting to work with. It is a fragile material that can be easily ripped or torn.” Play of Black and White is constructed of modules that form a configuration hanging on two levels. “I usually work in all white gampi paper,” says. “I experimented here by adding black lines to the rice paper. In future work, I may continue adding color to the modules.” 

Hope you enjoy these engaging works!

If you weren’t able to visit browngrotta arts in person in May, there are four other ways to experience our Spring exhibition, Field Notes: an art survey, three online and one in print.  We’ve created a Video; Viewing Rooms; and a Zoom talkthrough, Art on the Rocks-Field Notes Edition. You can also see more images and learn more about Field Notes in the Catalog of the same name — our 60th — on our website.

In the catalog, you’ll find more than 140 images of each of the works we “observed” in our state-of-the-art survey of the fiber medium in 2025. You’ll find detail shots and abbreviated cv information for each of the 52 artists included. 

You’ll also find artists’ insights on their work and comments on working in challenging times.  Polly Barton talks about her work, No Strings Attached,  which began as a small watercolor sketch — “a memory of petroglyphs — field notes from the past carved into basalt stones found while hiking paths in canyons. My sketch, like a voice from the past, beckoned to be woven as a fluid path forward into our spinning world.”  Norma Minkowitz writes about Golden Moon,  a continuation of a series of vessel forms she began in the 1990s. “These vessels represent containers of different thoughts: some dark, some optimistic and ethereal,” she writes. “Golden Moon, has a large, intricate orb rising up from the center. It is a symbol of illumination, insight, and mystery. The moon is a metaphor for beauty in this world and a source of light in the darkness” And Sung Rim Park speaks about the knots she creates of paper for her paper structures: “I determine the shape and size of each knot based on the knot based on the meanings and symbolism it holds,” she writes. “Fiber begins as a line—the most

basic element in art—and knots, as extensions or intersections, become points or dots. While knots and fibers may appear delicate, they have the power to shape space. The works that result may be light in physical terms, but you cannot ignore their heavy aura, or the diverse stories about mankind that they contain.”

There are also a few in-process shots to round out this special exploration volume. Get your copy at browngrotta.com. 

We have been following our own advice and trekking to the fiber events we’ve been promoting around the Connecticut.

Right in our neighborhood, we found Julia Bland ’s installation at the Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield. 

Julia Bland: Woven in the Reeds is the artist’s first solo museum presentation, debuting a monumental tapestry composed of canvas, ropes, linen nets, and fabrics that are dyed, woven, braided, tied, and sewn by hand. Bland grew up in Palo Alto, California, the Museum explains, in the shadow of the counterculture movement of the 1960s–70s, and in the nascent stages of technological utopianism. “Raised by parents with different religious backgrounds—her mother is Jewish, and her father is a Presbyterian minister—Bland’s upbringing was marked by a blend of spiritual influences. In 2008, she was awarded a fellowship to work in Morocco, where she lived on and off for several years. During this time, she studied Sufism and immersed herself in the country’s rich customs, materials, and craftsmanship. Informed by these personal experiences, Bland’s textiles reflect a synthesis of visual cultures across time and place. Her work blends the tie-dyed, kaleidoscopic imagery of psychedelia with sacred Islamic geometry and Judeo-Christian symbols.” While we were there, we took advantage of the Aldrich’s recently expanded and redesigned sculpture garden–beautifully laid out and interesting to walk through.

Ridgefield Road, on which the Aldrich is located, hosts several beautifully maintained Victorian homes and a quaint downtown also worth exploring. 

Julia Bland’s work is also included in WEFAN in West Cornwall, Connecticut through June 28, 2025. West Cornwall is in a picturesque part of Connecticut — even more so this time of year when the woods are green and the river is running high. 

WEFAN is in a jewel-box space, which served as a library beginning in 1940. The collection of work in WEFAN (a term drawn from Old English, meaning “to weave,”) is thoughtfully curated and meticulously installed by Dina Shaulov-Wright. Many artists that work with browngrotta arts are included: Ed Rossbach, Dorothy Gill Barnes, Sue Lawty, Norma Minkowitz, Judy Mulford, Dominic DiMare, Marion Hildebrandt, and Masako Yoshida. We were at the opening, which was well attended. Rhonda particularly enjoyed speaking to artist Maris Van Vlack about her work, Breakout/Breakdown. Van Vleck uses a variety of fibers, from thin threads to commericial rope, to create hand-woven work by architectural ruins, the New England landscape, and old family photographs, exploring how architectural structures retain the memory of events that occurred within a particular space.

We also enjoyed visiting the Michael Warren Gallery  nearby and had an exceptional meal at The Pink House. All well worth a trip. Photos by Tom Grotta 

Earlier in May, we visited the exhibitions at the Silvermine Art Galleries in New Canaan, CT. Fiber 2025 features more than 30 artists. In addition, 19 artists from browngrotta arts have works in display. Fiber 2025, Masters of the Medium: CT and Mastery and Materiality: International are up through June 19th.  Tom and Rhonda will be speaking about the exhibitions there on June 7, 2025 at 2:30.

Silvermine is a historic landmark on a five-acre campus in New Canaan. It encompasses an award-winning School of Art with over 4,000 annual enrollments; a nationally renowned Guild of over 300 professional artists; and a complex of five galleries, with free admission, presenting exhibitions by emerging and established contemporary artists. 

Hope you can see them all!

We have been delighted to host a good group of artists from the US and abroad at the gallery during our Spring exhibition, FIeld Notes: an art survey.

The exhibition continues through Sunday May 11, at 6 p.m. Blair Tate, Kari Lønning, Christine Joy, Norma Minkowitz, Shoko Fukuda, Wendy Wahl, and Włodzimierz Cygan were all here for the Artists Reception and Opening on Saturday, May 3rd. 

Clients were excited to meet the artists in person and learn more about about their work. We at browngrotta arts enjoyed learning about their influences and exhibitions in which they have participated. Shoko Fukuda, for example, has exhibits annually with a group of talented basketmakers and sculptors in Japan. The group was first organized by Hisako Sekijima, who Fukuda admires. The group has since developed a life of its own. When we asked Sekijima to suggest artists we should be watching, she named Fukuda, so their admiration is mutual. Fukuda cites Sekijima’s books as an influence. Sekijima’s book Basketry’s Formula, from the 1970s, has just been republished in Japan

Christine Joy came from Montana, US and stayed in New York City. The contrast in population, noise levels, concrete versus sky is quite stark, but she enjoyed speaking with colleagues and collectors. She’s showing new work in FIeld Notes — baskets that surround rocks. She thinks of them as landform sketches with a rock as the center point. “New Moon is a totemic object for me.” she says. “Noting the phases of the moon and being able to see the moon and where it is in the sky is a daily lifetime habit. 

The rock is unusual because of its pockmarked surface and round shape it made me think of the moon.” She was a bit hesitant to send it off to us. “I like the feel of it,” she wrote. “It is a piece I like to just sit and hold in two hands and close my eyes. I find it very soothing. It was hard to part with but soon I will start on Full Moon and that makes it easier.”

Competing in the Senior Olympics is in Norma Minkowitz’s future. She’ll head to Iowa in July to compete in several running events. She holds several records, including a world record won in the 2023 USATF Masters Indoor Championship. Minkowitz is a limits pusher. “… I fight for what I want in my running,” she told an interviewer. “I don’t know where this came from with my sedentary background, but I’ve always pushed myself to the limits. It wasn’t enough to have my work in a craft magazine, I wanted it in a museum.” She achieved that handily — her work is in 35 museum collections and has been the subject of 20 solo exhibitions.

Blair Tate is on her way to the UK and Italy, where she finds inspiration. Tom Grotta recently found hardware from abroad that is effective at setting Tate’s works like Mixed Signals, off the wall and he’s hoping she can find it while she is on the road. In Italy, Tate finds artistic inspiration.  “Since my first visits to Italy,” Tate told us previously,  “I have been interested in the visual layering that occurs when frescoes are interrupted by superimposed paintings or incised niches. Throughout Bologna, there are buildings with palimpsests of older fenestration patterns and newer window additions that are perpetually in marvelous conflict.” In some of her works, she plays with these concepts, rearranging and reconnecting separately woven strips off the loom. The whole can be intentionally splintered, fragmented, unsettled — “a reflection of our times, and perhaps all times,” she says.

On her way to the garden, with cuttings she had brought back a trip to Washington, DC, Kari Lønning made a short stop at the opening. She and Christine Joy enjoyed meeting after many years in parallel basketmaking circles. Wendy Wahl drove to Connecticut from Rhode Island and faced serious rain on her trip back. Wahl provided insight on her work Morse Code to viewers at the opening. It’s a piece where the different scrolls of map, index, and top text paper are laid in the pattern of her mantra, “W… T.. F…,” through Morse code disguising the message. The overall effect of the surface is a textural blending of colors into an abstract landscape. A warm gold edge on the ivory scrolls makes it sparkle in the right light. Between the domestic political and economic situation and the fires in Palisades, California, where Wahl is originally from, the mantra has continued resonance.

Włodzimierz Cygan joined us from Poland. He has an exciting work made with optical fiber in Field Notes. He’d also sent us Organic 3, a work that was featured in Beyond: Tapestry Expanded an American Tapestry Alliance-sponsored exhibition in 2024. The work has also been honored at the Textile Triennial in Szombathely, Hungary and featured on the cover of Arte Morbida. In creating Organic 3, Cygan worked with a warp whose strands were not parallel and flat but convergent, curved or three dimensional. The strands converge from a single point, enabling the weaving of circles or arcs, a means the artist uses to evoke a variety of associations. The work is fluid in nature and can be arranged differently each time it is installed. While visiting us in Connecticut, Cygan adjusted it to establish yet another way to install the work — this time to hang it on the wall. 

There are four more days to visit Field Notes: an art survey at browngrotta arts. You can learn more at our Zoom presentation, Art on the Rocks: an art talkthough with spirits, on June 10, 7 pm EST.