Jurors for Complexity 2024 will be Muffy Young, David van Buskirk, and Alice Schlein.
Muffy Young
Muffy Young is an award winning professional weaver, selling her scarves and shawls through craft fairs and small galleries. Originally inspired by textiles and landscapes when traveling in South America at age 16, Muffy continues to be influenced by the colors and design elements of Peruvian and Guatemalan cloth. Then, as well as now, the deep well of her inspiration is what is possible on a multiharness loom with hand-dyed yarn.
While completing her master’s degree in math at NYU in 1977, she took a weaving class at a shop near the campus.She had a colorful handwoven blanket from Avoca in Ireland and it sparked an interest in knowing how looms work. She left New York, not to work in math, but to build a career as a weaver.
She learned acid dyeing in 1981 and since then has only worked in animal fibers. Now she works exclusively in silk. She approaches design as a scientist, asking as any good complex weaver does: “What will happen if I try this?” One design leads to the next, and she’s always adding new work. Her home and studio are in Waltham, MA and is currently learning tapestry weaving.
David van Buskirk – dvb ART & DESIGN
David van Buskirk is a fiber artist, educator and textile designer. After receiving a BFA in Surface Design and Art Education from the Univ. of N. Colorado, he undertook advanced studies in textile design and handweaving at prestigious institutions in Sweden and a three-year apprenticeship with Swedish Textile Designer Age Faith-Ell. Upon completing his studies he resettled in New York, working for over three decades as a design director for major textile manufacturers. Concurrently he served as Adjunct Professor teaching woven design at the Fashion Institute of Technology from 1999 to 2017.
In 2017 he moved to Denver and rediscovered a passion for woven fiber art. David’s fiber art pieces have been exhibited in the Rocky Mountain Biennale (2020), Art of the State (2022), Complexity (2022). Concurrently his fiber arts is on exhibit at the Fantastic Fibers Exhibition at the Yeiser Art Center, and in the ATA Biennale 14 at the Appalachian Center for Crafts.
Alice Schlein
Alice Schlein, a New Jersey native, has been weaving most of her life, having taught herself to weave with the help of Lili Blumenau, a Bauhaus weaver, whose book The Art and Craft of Handweaving , was her earliest inspiration. Alice has enjoyed exploring structures such as lampas and other double weaves on shaft looms, dobby looms, and jacquard-type handlooms. She is the author of books and monographs including Network Drafting: an Introduction and Lampas for Shaft Looms, and co-author, with Bhakti Ziek, of The Woven Pixel. She has taught at schools and weavers’ conferences in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. and more recently to groups worldwide via Zoom. She currently resides and weaves in South Carolina.
