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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 6, 2000)
Arts&Entertainment Intricate design woven into exhibit Two artists collaborate on show, focus on pattern, design and color By Jason Hardy Staffwriter On the surface, many see the natural world as being chaotic and random. Trees, hills and other elements of nature seem to exist and grow with no visible plan. But two nationally known weavers not only see order in the world around them, they make it visible to others through their woven work. On Wednesday, the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery will host an exhibition showcasing the similarities and differences of these artists with an exhibition entitled “Constructed Pattern: Woven Work by Janice Lessman-Moss and Pauline Verbeek-Cowart.” Despite using very different methods to pro duce their work and living in completely different parts of the country, the patterns created by Lessman-Moss and Verbeek-Cowart have some very interesting parallels. “With Janice, her weavings are intricately pat patterns. “It’s amazing to see what she does using the computer as a design tool,” Weiss said. “To the untrained eye, their work may seem very similar, but their processes are quite different.” While the exhibit itself will undoubtedly be very educational for textile students, Weiss said they hoped to make the event even more enriching by holding a public lecture on pattern by Verbeek Cowart on Wednesday at 7 p.m. “Since we don’t show weavings very often, this is a special opportunity,” Weiss said. “It’s a chance for the students to meet the artist and talk to her about her process and the works them selves.” For Verbeek-Cowart, who is a member of the faculty at the Kansas City Art Institute, the lecture is a chance for her to fully explain herself and pos sibly inspire students with her work. “I like that it’s an educational setting because I’m an educator, and it’s part of my job to educate students on what is possible in the field of weav mg. temea usmg color ana geomet ric motifs,” said Wendy Weiss, spokeswoman for the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery. “Pauline takes a pattern.01* paper and will print it or hand paint it, so her design effect is primarily with the manipulation of shape, form and pattern, which merge and disperse.” Verbeek^Cowart said she used the aforementioned manipulation to construct and deconstruct order. “Part of my research includ ed areas in nature and science that revealed a sense of logic and order,” she said. “As weav ing is very systematic, I gain inspiration in things around me that have an order and logic. “It was very much based on systems of organization.” Verbeek-Cowart said that despite not actively working with Lessman-Moss, she was amazed by how well their work complimented each other. “I think the title is very fitting,” she said. “Pattern is revealed, but that pattern is only evi dent in very specific areas. What we share is a sense of order without it being predictable. “It’s what holds the work together.” While the inspiration and end result may have striking similarities, Weiss said the ways each artist came to those results were completely dif ferent. She said Verbeek-Cowart painted pieces of paper and cut them up into weavable pieces, which she then reciprocated with actual woven patterns. Lessman-Moss, on the other hand, uses computer programs like Photoshop to create her Constructed Pattern Woven Work WHERErThe Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery, 35th and Holdrege, East Campus WHEN: March 8 - April 7 COST: Free THE SKINNY: Weavers unite to exhibit unseen works. Madonna, Everett film ’ is not 'Best’ for audience By Samuel McKewon Senior editor ^ , Rupert and Madonna. Sounds like a scene out of a cheap comedy where a beagle dog pees on a Virgin Mary statue. Put a few dramatic scenes around that central image, toss in a few token croons from the world’s most omnipo tent human being since Muhammad Ali and you pretty much have “The Next Best Thing.” r - The movie just happens to star Madonna and her pal Rupert Everett, who’s such a big pal that Mads got him in Vanity Fair a few months back (that’s more than Warren Beatty ever scored, at least in the figurative sense) and even starred in a movie with the world’s Most Compatible Gay Man. Rupert’s so compatible, in fact, that Madonna’s yoga instructor, Abbie, takes a roll in the hay (and over the couch) with Rupert’s gardener, Robert, even though he’s gay and has taken to living as a Los Angeles houseboy for rich retirees. Madonna ends up pregnant. Rupert, who has noth- v| ing better to do with life, agrees to be the father of the ^ child. And that ends the establishment part of the movie. In a six-year flash forward, they live happily with son Sam (Malcolm Stumpf), Rupert living in a separate room inside the house and carrying on a happily active gay life ' outside. Poor Madonna, she’s lonely. As she says, “I’m not 34 anymore.” ; No, and whatever lighting tactic director John “Midnight Cowboy” Schlesinger used, it made her look 10 years older than she actually is. It is one of many problems Madonna encounters in the film. It’d be an injustice to exclude that she uses three or four accents, flowing out of British tongue and into back street New Yorker within a scene. It is, quite simply, the worst Madonna has Please see NEXT BEST on 10 Courtesty photos Left: “An Echo Answered Back,” a linen and nylon woven work by Janice Lessman-Moss is part of the “Constructed Pattern: Woven Work” at the Hillestad Textiles Gallery. Right: Pauline Verbeek-Cowart’s “Cycles #4” is part of an exhibit of woven works. The show runs today through April 7.