Lane Taplin creates Woven Heart Spots

Photo by Kathy Browning Lane Taplin will also be showing these works at the Paonia Library during the month of March.Lane Taplin comes to Paonia by way of Denver and Portland. She was accepted as "an artist in residence" at Elsewhere Studios. She arrived last October but began work in earnest for her exhibit in December.

Now she is opening "Woven Heart Spots," a visual collection of stories and memories from Paonia as told by current residents. You can see her work and hear the stories behind her images on fabric at the Blue Sage Center for the Arts on Saturday, Feb. 23, from 5 to 7 p.m. An informal storytelling circle begins at 6 p.m. The exhibit will hang until Feb. 28. It will then be displayed at the Paonia Library from March 2-30.

While most artists use paint brushes, Taplin creates her artwork by exposing photographic images onto silk screen. She then silk screens the image onto the vertical threads on her eight-harness loom. The more harnesses, the more complicated the pattern that could be created. The thread shifts and the images become feathered on the edges.

Her fabric art has written word and photographs.

Each piece has an impressionistic appearance.

Photo by Kathy Browning Lane Taplin weaves her own fabric used in her artworks. An artist in residence at Elsewhere Studios, Taplin will have an exhibit at the Blue Sage Center for the Arts in Paonia opening Saturday, Feb. 23, from 5 to 7 p.m.She gathered stories and old photographs from people living in Paonia. "I print the words on top because they represent now, but the images are from a long time ago," she said.

Taplin uses other techniques that make her works unique.

She is doing this project in connection with the Heart and Soul Project.

She worked with 14 different people and is making a memory of their story which she will then give to them.
"Each person had so many great stories to tell, I couldn't just pick one. I'm doing some smaller pieces from the extra stories," Taplin said.

She met people in a variety of ways. Taplin met Ron and Deb Rowell at Paonia Cleaners. She asked about a photograph they had. They shared their story, and now there will be a piece of art representing that story.
She met others through a request on KVNF and visiting with groups.

Taplin is a fiber artist, a community-based artist and educator who studied at Rhode Island School of Design.
"I was living in Portland and I decided that I really wanted to take some time to work on my own personal artwork. I'd been working with adults with developmental disabilities teaching art. It was amazing and so great. My job was to make art with people and help them figure out what they most loved to do and what inspired them," Taplin said.

She looked online and applied to Elsewhere Studios for its artist in residence program. "I really wanted to come back to Colorado and live in the mountains and be making my artwork here."

She's living her dream by being an artist in residence. "People ask me if you could be doing anything right now what would it be? This. I'm already doing it. It's incredible that when I'm working [at my job] I don't have the energy or time to throw myself into my own projects and work intensely on them."

This opportunity gives her all the time in the world to focus and work on her artwork. "It's amazing to be in this incredible space. The space is really inspiring because I can tell when I'm here that there have been so many artisans and people who made this house come together," Taplin said.

She thrives being in an environment with other supportive artists. "The community aspect of it is really important," Taplin explained. She can even call on her fellow artists to critique her work.

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