作者: Alexandra Jacopetti Hart

Alexandra Jacopetti Hart has been a textile artist for over fifty years, with her career focused in three main areas. Embroidery as exemplified by her work in Native Funk & Flash is only a small part of her contribution to the history of the dynamic social movements of the 1960’s and 70’s. With this book she captured the essence of the heartful, if naïve, values of the “flower children” and their sincere wish for peace and love; clean air, water, food and environment; equal rights for the oppressed; and freedom of expression of all kinds through the art they created for one another. Now, as these folks have grown into grandparents, they still convey those sincere and basic human desires through the pages of her beloved classic book. It holds a place on the bookshelves of designers and crafts lovers around the world. Folkwear Patterns, which she initiated in 1974, the same year Funk & Flash came out, with friends Ann Wainwright (wife of F&F photographer Jerry Wainwright) and Barbara Garvey (wife of F&F artist Al Garvey), is the second area of her career. This clothing pattern company authentically preserves many ethnic and vintage clothing styles and surface designs and techniques from around the world. They are used as palettes for art wearables designers, home sewers, and theatrical costumers and are still in production today. She was responsible for the written history of the garments and the surface design pattern drafting and instructions. Tapestries; woven, painted, or stitched wall hangings; and peyote-stitched beaded and silver jewelry comprise the third area. Large-scale tapestries hang in many corporate settings from IBM offices to Hyatt Regency hotels. A twelve-foot square playground in Bolinas, CA was the subject of an NEA-funded movie “The Saga of Macramé Park” filmed by Ben Van Meter. Museum and gallery showings of these categories have ranged around the world, and in the Bay Area her work has been included in exhibitions at San Francisco MOMA, The Palace of the Legion of Honor, Oakland Museum, and a variety of smaller venues. Examples from Native Funk & Flash reside in the permanent collection of the Oakland Museum. Over the years her work has been included in numerous books and had extensive periodical coverage. A retrospective exhibition of her fifty years in fiber opens June 7, 2013 at the Occidental Center for the Arts in Occidental, CA.