Fiber Artist Jan Doyle thinks way outside the box and she blames it on being left handed. “I think with the opposite side of my brain – the illogical side” she laughed. Doyle, of South Kingstown, was always attracted to textiles but had trouble figuring out if it was due to texture or color. Judging by her work, color wins hands down. Knitting and crocheting from a young age she somehow knew she would she would end up weaving. “I was always fascinated with each individual thread” she said, “once you understand the thread you understand the cloth.”
After moving from hand needle work to machine knitting Doyle started weaving classes in 1990. She soon proved to be too out of the box for the traditional folk art. “I was referred to as the cuckoo in the weaver’s class nest” she laughed. Chafing at the rules for formatting designs on graph paper before starting, Doyle just got started knowing that she could see 14 yards ahead to where the colors needed to be. Four years ago she gave up buying colored yarn altogether. Today she buys only white yarn and dyes it herself to achieve the colors that she truly wants.
She refers to her art pieces as neo-textiles; somewhere between clothing and costume. “I would love to see people become enamored of wearing something special, something that transports them to a different place.” Doyle’s art pieces do invoke a feeling of ancient high priestesses and royals wearing ceremonial garb yet her simpler jackets and shawls are eminently wearable for everyday use. And then there is the 22 foot dinosaur that Doyle and her husband Steve collaborated on. He built the aluminum armature and she wove the covering fabric. Today it is housed at the Matunuck Elementary School.
Doyle, who jokingly refers to her business as CEA, or can’t eat accolades, also produces mainstream items such as scarves and table linens but with that dazzling colorful touch. One new venture is to weave at weddings, having the guests choose the threads to add throughout the celebration and present the couple with a finished table linen at the end of the evening for a truly personalized gift.
She is an adjunct professor of weaving at URI, teaches at Slater Mill in Pawtucket and gives private lessons in her studio, Swords of Vavlkyrie. Yes she knows it is misspelled but vav means weaving in Swedish, and the Scandinavian style of double pick up weaving is her favorite. It’s that thinking outside the box thing again.
Contact Jan Doyle at vavlkyrie@cox.net or call 401-742-0284 . You can view her favorite piece, “Queen Anaphylactic ” by visiting www.projo.com>lifebeat>art>view artist by name>Doyle, Jan
