Community Articles (listed by posting date)
General News · 20th August 2025
Kristen Scholfield-Sweet
A stunner! The current exhibition at the Old Schoolhouse Gallery: Earth-Textiles by Ayami
Stryck and Zaeya Winter, fits this description on many levels. Consider going for a second look
at the connection between nature and art, at asking useful questions, and at the shifting
sensations within art-making.
The natural and the beautiful, in their purest state, are indistinguishable. Could you
improve upon the circle?
Zaeya causes us to ponder the art of nature, and how is this different—if at all—from the art of
humans? The perfection of a curve, the complexity of pattern, the repetition of form; surely
choice is involved, and choice is consciousness. Perhaps in all of nature nothing is random,
but choice. Perhaps all of nature is conscious.
Answers are reassuring, but when something really useful happens, it probably takes the
form of a question.
Ayami upends our sense of what literally makes art: prints from rust? How is that even possible?
And perhaps more significantly, what are the questions Ayami is asking of her choices of
materials, that rust would be the answer?
Can you describe the sensations that change when craft swells into art?
There is at least one hauntingly inaccessible dimension to art-making. The sensations that
arise while immersed in the making. What the artist feels is usually the one aspect of art that
the viewer cannot receive. And yet these artists do give a glimpse into the sensations of art
making—that probably keep artists coming back to their work.
Zaeya gives us the sensation of determination in the leaf’s record of effort, and echos this effort
in her willingness to collect many leaves of precisely the same size and visual condition.
Determination swells into goodness of fit.
Ayami gives us the sensation of precision, where the smallest join must not break what comes
together, and patterns overlay patterns without creating a hierarchy of shape or space.
Precision swells into satisfaction.
Enjoy a second look at this stunning show of EARTH-TEXTILES, continuing with a literary
Friday on August 22nd at 7 pm, and Saturday and Sunday the 23rd and 24th from 2-6 pm.
Thanks to David Bayles and Ted Orlando for these bold thoughts from their book: Art & fear.
Stryck and Zaeya Winter, fits this description on many levels. Consider going for a second look
at the connection between nature and art, at asking useful questions, and at the shifting
sensations within art-making.
The natural and the beautiful, in their purest state, are indistinguishable. Could you
improve upon the circle?
Zaeya causes us to ponder the art of nature, and how is this different—if at all—from the art of
humans? The perfection of a curve, the complexity of pattern, the repetition of form; surely
choice is involved, and choice is consciousness. Perhaps in all of nature nothing is random,
but choice. Perhaps all of nature is conscious.
Answers are reassuring, but when something really useful happens, it probably takes the
form of a question.
Ayami upends our sense of what literally makes art: prints from rust? How is that even possible?
And perhaps more significantly, what are the questions Ayami is asking of her choices of
materials, that rust would be the answer?
Can you describe the sensations that change when craft swells into art?
There is at least one hauntingly inaccessible dimension to art-making. The sensations that
arise while immersed in the making. What the artist feels is usually the one aspect of art that
the viewer cannot receive. And yet these artists do give a glimpse into the sensations of art
making—that probably keep artists coming back to their work.
Zaeya gives us the sensation of determination in the leaf’s record of effort, and echos this effort
in her willingness to collect many leaves of precisely the same size and visual condition.
Determination swells into goodness of fit.
Ayami gives us the sensation of precision, where the smallest join must not break what comes
together, and patterns overlay patterns without creating a hierarchy of shape or space.
Precision swells into satisfaction.
Enjoy a second look at this stunning show of EARTH-TEXTILES, continuing with a literary
Friday on August 22nd at 7 pm, and Saturday and Sunday the 23rd and 24th from 2-6 pm.
Thanks to David Bayles and Ted Orlando for these bold thoughts from their book: Art & fear.
