Spotlight on DKG Arts Gallery Blog Artist – Jane Tanner, Chi, New York

For this Art Gallery blog, we are delving into the realm of needlecraft with spotlighting Jane Tanner, from New York, and her piece of art intitled ‘Divisions.’

1. Tell us about yourself as an educator and an artist.

I have wanted to be a teacher since I was in kindergarten. My fifth grade math teacher walked on water in my eyes and I wanted to be just like her. In the late 1970s, math teachers were a dime a dozen. Permanent substitute positions for three years in middle school mathematics as well as a year teaching computer science and low-level mathematics at the high school level gave me teaching experience.

Onondaga Community College, part of the State University of New York, asked me to apply for an open position in their Business Administration Department. I would be teaching data processing. I was hired the same day I interviewed and thus began a 36-year career teaching computer information systems and mathematics.

Many people have influenced me on my needle arts journey. My mother taught me how to knit when I was five. A college roommate was latch-hooking a rug. A math teacher was cross-stitching in the faculty dining room during lunch. I needed to experiment with all of these!

Stamped cross stitch was my stepping stone into the world of needle arts. When my family went on summer vacations, I would be able to choose something to keep me occupied. This is one of the pieces I stitched when I was around 8.

This was the beginning of my nearly 60-year obsession of creating art using a needle. For the past 20 plus years, I have belonged to the Embroiderer's Guild of America (EGA) and the American Needlepoint Guild (ANG). These two guilds have allowed me to meet like-minded stitchers as well as experiment with many different types of needle art.

2. How did you decide on this form of art to work with?

My love of mathematics carries over from my professional life into my personal life. Counted canvas work such as ‘Divisions’ is full of geometry including circles, lines, and symmetry.

Twenty years ago, my world consisted pretty much of counted cross stitch. Joining the two guilds has opened up a world of different types of stitching such as blackwork, hardanger, pulled and drawn thread, counted canvas, beading, the list goes on.

If a project involves using a needle, I am interested!

3. What was your inspiration in picking this project and how did you go about doing it?

 

‘Divisions’ was offered at the 2017 ANG Seminar; it immediately appealed to me because of the blues and purples in it. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the seminar as I was still working at the time. The designer Debbie Rowley offered this again as an online class this summer and I jumped at the opportunity to take it.

It is satisfying to watch a blank piece of canvas or other fabric take on a new appearance as the stitching progresses.

4. What is the best piece of advice given you as an artist or that you can give to someone else?

Don't be afraid of making your project your own. Ted Sorensen said, "You will never experience personal growth if you fear taking chances." Normally, I am a rule follower in life and in stitching I try to follow the instructions I am given. In the past few years, I have relaxed the need to follow the rules in stitching and have tried experimenting with changing colors or the actual design. This is encouraging me to design my own pieces.

5. In your view, what is the value of the creative arts in education?

Having taught mathematics for 40 years, I was very aware of the relationship among Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). According to the U.S. Department of Education website, “In an ever-changing, increasingly complex world, it's more important than ever that our nation's youth are prepared to bring knowledge and skills to solve problems, make sense of information, and know how to gather and evaluate evidence to make decisions." Now our students are encouraged to think creatively and thus STEAM emerged with the ‘A’ representing the arts.

In the liberal arts mathematics courses taught at my college, students are required to submit a project of their choosing for a major portion of their final grade. The goal of this project is to incorporate mathematical thinking into a real-world activity. Projects have included knitting, crocheting, cross stitch, model building, quilting, to name a few. As a result, students connect mathematics with something that they are interested in. They may then dislike mathematics a little less when the realization hits them that math is everywhere and is not to be feared.

6. Do you have anything else that you would like to share?

One thing that I have learned is to not be discouraged when a "mistake" has been made. As long as the mistake has taught you something, it isn't a mistake but a learning experience. With a project, it is sometimes necessary to rip out your work so you can get it correct. But sometimes mistakes may lead to something beautiful or an idea for another project. Designers have long realized this and, in fact, there is a "mistake stitch" in knitting and counted canvas needlepoint.

Having said that, I love mathematics because solutions are either right or wrong - not exactly creative. But there can be creativity in mathematics when one examines the elegance in getting to the solution.