Gloria Dale
The felt pieces I make today have their history in a long background
of working with textiles. For over 25 years I made artist-designed hand tufted rugs which have been exhibited in America, Italy and England.
I love the tactile quality of wool, the colours and shading that result from mixing it. Four years ago, searching to change creative direction, I took a felt-making course at the Mary Ward centre and found a technique that would allow me to express, in an abstract way, my creative abilities. Working with Pat Hopewell, weaver and felt-maker, as an apprentice, I have developed and am expanding my techniques to create abstract art in wool.
Part of the excitement of felting wool is its spontaneity in creating its own patterns. It turns out to be a collaboration between what I create and what the felting allows to happen. Although pieces may be similar, they are never the same. The result is a canvas for my drawing abstract designs with strands of wool and a dry felting needle. The material is robust and versatile and open to change in the act of completion.
Having used knitting, needlework and hand tufting as a means of expression in the past, I now find those techniques too repetitious. Making felt is freeing and it has become the inspiration of my life.
Education
2009 Mentored by Pat Hopewell, weaver and felt-maker
2008 Mary Ward Centre, London
1969-73 American University, Beirut
1941-42 Barnard College, NYC
Awards
1963 Gold medal for best rug, Italy
Selected Exhibitions
1964 Interiors International, London
1963 American Federation of Arts, circulating exhibition throughout the USA
1962 Pan-American Union, Washington DC
Galleria 88, Rome, Italy
1955-56 American Federation of Arts, circulating exhibition throughout the USA
1955 Baltimore Museum, Baltimore
Architect’s League, NYC
1954 George Borgenicht Gallery, 57th Street, NYC
Artist collaborations
Over fifty, including Milton Avery, Anni Albers, Severini, Gio Ponti, Santomoso, Carlos Merida, Mimo Rotello, Stamos.
Collections
Museum of Modern Art, NYC
Barag Rug Co.
J. Edgar Hoover
Phillips Petroleum Co.
Harcourt Brace Publishers, NYC
Numerous private collections
Publications
1987-94 Antique Collector
1978 Arts Magazine
1957-59 United States Information Agency (USIA)
1954 Craft Horizons
Interviewed and articles published by the New York Times, the Washington Post, Pan-American magazine, Life magazine, Italian press.