{"id":196582,"date":"2016-11-04T14:40:43","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T18:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=196582"},"modified":"2016-11-07T08:54:59","modified_gmt":"2016-11-07T13:54:59","slug":"fabrics-with-flow-196582","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/fabrics-with-flow-196582\/","title":{"rendered":"Eastman musician has \u2018hidden passion\u2018 for fabrics with flow"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Memorial Art Gallery\u2019s \u201cHidden Passions: Inspiring Conversations about Hyphenated Lives<\/a><\/strong>\u201d is in its third season of celebrating the creative lives and private hobbies of Rochesterians.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHidden Passions puts our friends and neighbors center-stage so that we can marvel at the extraordinary creative adventures happening all around us … and perhaps find inspiration for our own,\u201d says Jonathan Binstock, the Mary W. and Donald R. Clark Director of the Memorial Art Gallery.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here, we highlight one member of the University community who is being featured this season.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Learn more
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Melissa Matson is one of two featured speakers at the Memorial Art Gallery\u2019s Hidden Passions event<\/a><\/strong> at 7 p.m. Thursday, November 10. She\u2019ll be joined by biophysics doctoral candidate Karl Smith<\/a>, who will discuss his 10-cent story project.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Melissa Matson\u00a0\u201978E, \u201980E (MM) has always liked to \u201cmake stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing up in northern California, she made forts in the walnut trees on her family\u2019s property. She followed along when TV\u2019s Captain Kangaroo brought out his shoe box full of craft supplies and embarked on a new project using a milk carton or another found object. She learned to sew at a young age, and looked forward to family trips to Britex, a fabric store in San Francisco where she would \u201cbask in all the fabrics.\u201d<\/p>\n

These days she finds a creative outlet in making colorful artisan-dyed fabric and garments\u2014something she\u2019s been doing for about 15 years.<\/p>\n

Matson is principal violist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and an associate professor of orchestral repertory at the Eastman School of Music. She\u2019ll be talking about her passion for creating the unique fabric pieces as a speaker in the Memorial Art Gallery\u2019s Hidden Passions, a monthly series that celebrates the hobbies and creative lives of Rochesterians.<\/p>\n

Inside the second-floor studio in Matson\u2019s Honeoye Falls home hang dyed pieces of many sizes and colors, as well as completed jackets and scarves.<\/p>\n

\"woman
Matson uses materials such as masking tape, glue, or flour paste\u2014and even pine needles\u2014to the screen before dyeing. (University photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She honed her skills at an improvisational screen printing workshop with Jane Dunnewold, whose book, Complex Cloth<\/em>, first got Matson interested in the art. Improvisational refers to the non-permanent nature of the screens used in the screen-printing process. Materials such as masking tape, glue, or flour paste are added to the screen before dyeing\u2014depending on the desired effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just keep experimenting and see where it goes,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

“Each piece is unique,” Matson says proudly. Some are inspired by the rhythm of poetry. Some are the result of experimentation with color and texture. Some have more of a personal touch.<\/p>\n

Matson pulls out a jacket and gently fingers screen-printed images of her mother and grandmother as little girls\u2014they are enveloped among the bold, gold pattern covering the piece. She says her mother supported her interests and encouraged her to experiment on her sewing projects as a child.<\/p>\n

Matson\u2019s background as a musician sometimes influences her creations.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople say that my fabrics look musical,\u201d Matson says. \u201cI think that has a lot to do with the flow and emotion that come when I play [music]. The fabrics I\u2019ve made that I like the least are the ones that just sit there and don\u2019t really have any motion.\u201d<\/p>\n

She finds some parallels between being a musician and a fabric artist. Matson says she\u2019s always striving to find a better way to make music\u2014a richer phrase or more interesting color in her playing. She takes the same approach to dyeing fabric.<\/p>\n

There are differences, too\u2014most notably that playing music with the orchestra is more collaborative than the solo work of dyeing fabrics.<\/p>\n

\"artist
Matson says this piece has an autumnal color palette. (University photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis is a little freeing, but also adds more responsibility because it\u2019s all me,\u201d Matson says about screen printing. \u201cIf it\u2019s great, it\u2019s me. If it\u2019s ugly, it\u2019s me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s nice about the fabric making is that it frees me from the fear of making mistakes. There are no mistakes when I\u2019m dyeing fabric,\u201d she adds. \u201cIf I do something unexpected, it could be a really great discovery or it could be really bad. But I can always dye it again. I always say that if at first you don\u2019t succeed, dye, dye again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra violist and Eastman School of Music professor Melissa Matson talks about her \u201chidden passion\u201d for creating dyed fabric pieces and garments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196682,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13092],"tags":[3286,936],"class_list":["post-196582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-arts","tag-eastman-school-of-music","tag-memorial-art-gallery"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEastman musician has \u2018hidden passion\u2018 for fabrics with flow<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/fabrics-with-flow-196582\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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