Jane's Pocket Change: Wearable Art
Each December, at our annual Evening of the Arts, a large and bustling crowd packs into the Moir Atrium in the Garthwaite Center for Science and Art and is wowed by the design ingenuity, creativity and social-political statements made by our student designers and their models during the Wearable Art Fashion Show.
Each December, at our annual Evening of the Arts, a large and bustling crowd packs into the Moir Atrium in the Garthwaite Center for Science and Art and is wowed by the design ingenuity, creativity and social-political statements made by our student designers and their models during the Wearable Art Fashion Show.
Each piece glides down the stairway accompanied by a description in the creator’s own words with their homage to sustainability, a piece of history, consumerism or political struggle (just to name a few).
I do not believe that the work of former visual arts faculty member Randall Darwall was especially political, but he certainly told a story through his work – a story that is captured in his well-renowned weavings, fabric and clothing (as well as in the quilts of his husband, Brian Murphy) for all to see and admire, especially important now that Randy, who died on January 13, is no longer making art.
His February 2 obituary in The Boston Globe tells a lot of his story. He is quoted in the piece from a conversation with the Globe in 2015: “There are few artists in the world that are really worth looking at. The rest of us are craftsmen. I think that as an educator, a craftsman, and an artist myself, there’s art in each of us, and for me, making functional items puts art into the context of daily use. I don’t feel like my cloth becomes fully alive until it gets purchased and becomes part of a life.”
How touching, and how deeply important to us at CSW, that Randy spent several years in the 1970s teaching and working with our students. Since Randy’s death, many of his students, as well as his former CSW colleagues, have reached out to us about the effect his teaching and art had on them. From Joan Gitlow (visual arts teacher 1980-2000): “Although I did not witness his work at CSW, it was evident in the students I inherited from him the following year. They demonstrated clarity and seriousness about their own creative powers, a respect for process, and a grounding in coherent visual language. It was a pleasure to work from the place where Randy left them.” And from Maya Massar ‘78 (Andrea Y. Grillo): “Randy was a cornerstone of my formation as an artist and a harbor of safety and warmth in my unfolding toward adulthood. I experienced so many blessings of wisdom and grace from Randy; though his presence was gentle and quiet, his effect was a loud roar for being who we are, without censoring, and to trust the innate artistry of our souls to emerge exactly as it should - whether on canvas, loom or in being fully and honestly alive with another human being.”
Sadly, I never met Randy, but his shadow long cast its influence into our visual arts department, and the strength of his teaching has stayed with us. I know how strong the power of the arts in our lives is; I know how the arts transcend all borders and barriers to bring us together. Whether as an audience member as our chorus and chamber orchestra play Bach and sing Mozart, or looking forward to the magic of dance concert, or, as all our students do, engaging in the arts in some way every day, we are given something that empowers us, whether we wear it, own it or admire it.
Dean of Faculty and Visual Arts Teacher Tom Evans often quotes Leonard Bernstein at the Evening of the Arts and I’d like to share that quote here: “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” Art can be our reply to all difficulties and, at CSW, it is one of the languages we employ best.
__________________________________________________
Pocket Change is a web diary written by Jane Moulding, head of school.
Each piece glides down the stairway accompanied by a description in the creator’s own words with their homage to sustainability, a piece of history, consumerism or political struggle (just to name a few).
I do not believe that the work of former visual arts faculty member Randall Darwall was especially political, but he certainly told a story through his work – a story that is captured in his well-renowned weavings, fabric and clothing (as well as in the quilts of his husband, Brian Murphy) for all to see and admire, especially important now that Randy, who died on January 13, is no longer making art.
His February 2 obituary in The Boston Globe tells a lot of his story. He is quoted in the piece from a conversation with the Globe in 2015: “There are few artists in the world that are really worth looking at. The rest of us are craftsmen. I think that as an educator, a craftsman, and an artist myself, there’s art in each of us, and for me, making functional items puts art into the context of daily use. I don’t feel like my cloth becomes fully alive until it gets purchased and becomes part of a life.”
How touching, and how deeply important to us at CSW, that Randy spent several years in the 1970s teaching and working with our students. Since Randy’s death, many of his students, as well as his former CSW colleagues, have reached out to us about the effect his teaching and art had on them. From Joan Gitlow (visual arts teacher 1980-2000): “Although I did not witness his work at CSW, it was evident in the students I inherited from him the following year. They demonstrated clarity and seriousness about their own creative powers, a respect for process, and a grounding in coherent visual language. It was a pleasure to work from the place where Randy left them.” And from Maya Massar ‘78 (Andrea Y. Grillo): “Randy was a cornerstone of my formation as an artist and a harbor of safety and warmth in my unfolding toward adulthood. I experienced so many blessings of wisdom and grace from Randy; though his presence was gentle and quiet, his effect was a loud roar for being who we are, without censoring, and to trust the innate artistry of our souls to emerge exactly as it should - whether on canvas, loom or in being fully and honestly alive with another human being.”
Sadly, I never met Randy, but his shadow long cast its influence into our visual arts department, and the strength of his teaching has stayed with us. I know how strong the power of the arts in our lives is; I know how the arts transcend all borders and barriers to bring us together. Whether as an audience member as our chorus and chamber orchestra play Bach and sing Mozart, or looking forward to the magic of dance concert, or, as all our students do, engaging in the arts in some way every day, we are given something that empowers us, whether we wear it, own it or admire it.
Dean of Faculty and Visual Arts Teacher Tom Evans often quotes Leonard Bernstein at the Evening of the Arts and I’d like to share that quote here: “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” Art can be our reply to all difficulties and, at CSW, it is one of the languages we employ best.
__________________________________________________
Pocket Change is a web diary written by Jane Moulding, head of school.
The Cambridge School of Weston is a progressive high school for day and boarding students in grades 9–12 and PG. CSW's mission is to provide a progressive education that emphasizes deep learning, meaningful relationships, and a dynamic program that inspires students to discover who they are and what their contribution is to their school, their community and the world.