Branching Out
David Van Buskirk
55 x 35 x 14 inches
2024
ABOUT THE ARTIST
David’s fiber artworks have been included in numerous exhibitions, including the Rocky Mountain Biennial Juried Exhibition of 2020 (Honorable Mention); Colorado’s Art of the State 2022 triennial exhibition; Keeping Time: History, Memory, Nostalgia presented by the Art Students League Denver in 2022; the Knoxville Arts & Culture Alliance’s exhibition Complexity 2022: Innovations in Weaving; the Estes Park Arts Council’s Face of Fiber in the Rockies 2022; the American Tapestry Alliance’s 2023 Biennale 14; the Yeiser Art Center’s exhibition Fantastic Fibers 2023; The Sarratt Gallery at Vanderbilt University, Caution: Men Running with Scissors; Blue Line Arts, Roseville CA By Hand; The Art Depot, Littleton CO. Fiber Arts Colorado ; Art Students League, Denver Faculty Exhibition; Menino Arts Center, Hyde Park, MA. Focus on Fibers 2024; Wayne Art Center, Wayne PA. Craft Forms 2024: Fiber Art Now annual exhibition Excellence in Fiber X. He has been featured in Tapestry Topics (Fall 2023), the American Tapestry Alliance’s Triannual Review of Tapestry Art Today.
David recently completed a two-week residency at Praxis Digital Weaving Lab inCleveland, Ohio, mastering digital jacquard weaving on a TC2 loom. David serves as president to the board of the American Tapestry Alliance which serves to promote the creation and appreciation of contemporary woven tapestries.
For over 3 decades David worked as a design director for major U.S. textile manufactures (such as Burlington and Forstmann and Co.), and in 1997 David established an independent textile design firm in New York City. His textile designs have been included in the collections of Knoll and Design Tex as well as featured in publications such as Interior Design and Elle Décor.
David currently teaches at Art Students League, Denver. From 1999-2017 David served as an Adjunct Professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, having completed advanced studies in weaving and textile design at Handarbetes Vänners Vävskola in Stockholm, Sweden, the Textile Institute, Borås, and a 3-year apprenticeship with internationally renowned textile designer Age Faith-Ell, after receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Surface Design and Arts Education at the University of Northern Colorado. David currently resides in Denver, Colorado.
This artist has contributed a video to our Video Resources page.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Selecting foraged branches to create the loom substrate demanded improvision and not knowing the outcome. The design was dictated by the variety of branch thrusts, and I chose to explore a single technique called “hachure” to realize the visual patterning. The torque of the branches encouraged me to experiment, piercing the flat planes of the woven web to create a multi-dimensional work.
I have always been drawn to the act of making with my hands, and the tactile experience of manipulating fibrous materials has offered me a serene place to live and creatively thrive. Early on I was told that I have a gift for weaving, and I’ve never lost my initial fascination for weaving hundreds of separate threads together to form unique creative expressions.
While I relish working on highly technical looms (such as a compu-dobby and a TC2 digital jacquard loom) as these mechanical processes and the modernist grid of warp and weft afford a diversity of ways to express meaning using form and color in a two-dimensional structure, I’m also drawn to working with very primitive weighted-warp looms composed of foraged contorted tree branches, whose natural irregularities entail working with warps hung asymmetrically that demand weaving on a bias, offering unique, serendipitous challenges that encourage inventive problem-solving and the felicitous discovery of novel solutions spanning three-dimensions. Engaging the paradox of precision and improvisation serves as a wellspring of inspiration that energizes my creative life as a fiber artist.
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES
Foraged wood, linen, wool, polyester, silk.
Plain weave and basket weave.