Maryanne Moodie Interview

This is the transcript of my interview with the Australian artist Maryanne Moodie, whose weaving graces the cover of Collected Strands Volume 1. This interview is also edited into the main episode with the musicians. You’ll find all the links here

Leah Roseman (00:01):

Hi, you're listening to Conversations with Musicians with Leah Roseman. This is a special stand-alone bonus episode featuring the inspiring Australian artist educator and author Marianne Moodie whose woven art graces the cover of the Collected Strands album, Volume 1, which is being celebrated in the main episode connected to this one. I decided to release the stand-alone bonus for those listeners who are passionate about weaving and want to dive into the interview with Maryanne right away. But I've included a clip of our improvisation Solace as part of this episode, and you will find all the links in the description of this podcast to listen to this music, and of course, the links to Marianne Moodyie's art, workshops and books as well. I feel that all my listeners who love music and creativity will find that Marianne's personal journey and perspectives will resonate strongly with them. And I hope some listeners in the weaving and art world will also be inspired by the musicians.

Leah Roseman (01:40):

However, if you're going to listen to the main episode with Collected Strands, you'll find that my interview with Marianne Moodie is in the middle of that episode, and you can always use the timestamps to navigate

Leah Roseman (01:52):

Like all my episodes. You can watch this on my YouTube channel or listen to the podcast on all the podcast platforms. And I've also linked the transcript to my website, leahroseman.com. Before we jump into our conversation, I wanted to let you know that I have a new way you can support this independent podcast through a beautiful collection of merch with a very cool, unique, and expressive design from artist Steffi Kelly. You'll find that link in the description of the episode. This weekly podcast is in season four, and I send out an email newsletter where you can get access to sneak peeks of upcoming guests. Have a look at the description of this episode where you'll find all the links.

(02:34):

So Maryanne, it's so nice to meet you.

Maryanne Moodie (02:35):

Thank you, Leah. It's lovely to meet you too.

Leah Roseman (02:38):

This is very unusual for this podcast to have somebody on the podcast who's not primarily a musician, but thank you for contributing to our album in this important way, and hopefully our next album as well with our name Collected Strands.

Maryanne Moodie (02:55):

I actually do feel like my loom is a little bit like a harp, so there is a connection.

Leah Roseman (03:03):

I think there's a lot of connections, actually, and so many creative people I speak with. I think there's just so many commonalities, but let's talk about your work and how people can get in touch with you, and you do so much really for community of weavers, new weavers, and experienced weavers all over.

Maryanne Moodie (03:22):

Thank you. I feel like community is the center of my practice. I am often alone in my studio when I'm weaving, either listening to music or podcasts or just learning my thoughts and that connection to other weavers, other artists, other humans presently as well as those in the past is so important to my practice and to making me feel like I'm in the right spot.

Leah Roseman (03:59):

So you have two books?

Maryanne Moodie (04:01):

Yes. I was a teacher for 10 years before I started weaving, and so that part of my identity is still really strong. And so it was an organic pathway that I started. Once I started weaving that I wanted to share that knowledge and that feeling of being centered and having a creative outlet with other people who were looking for that, but didn't quite have the railings in place to help them. So I really wanted to give people that first gentle guidance into having an artistic outlet. And so I wrote my first book, and that was a huge success, and so the publishers came back and asked me to write a second one, and the second one was really building on the first one and more for pure weavers, whereas the first one was just having an artistic life, having a sustainable, artistic, creative life.

Leah Roseman (05:09):

So were you teaching school?

Maryanne Moodie (05:11):

Yeah, I was teaching primary school or elementary school, and I spent a lot of my time teaching in the art room, and I always had a creative outlook, I guess, with my life. But then I found that when I was teaching, I was allowing other people to experience that joy and I wasn't allowing myself. And so once I was pregnant, I found I had more time on my hands to be able to nurture my own inner artistic child.

Leah Roseman (05:51):

And I'm a parent as well. My kids are grown, but I have thought over the years, if you model, especially as a, I think if you model having your own passions that you're interested in, that's a good thing for them to see so that they're not necessarily always the focus of your life.

Maryanne Moodie (06:07):

Oh, absolutely. I think very early on, I had a therapist to gave me the keys to life, which was, you are not just a mother. You are not just a mother of a child who is neurodiverse. You are also an artist, a dancer, a daughter, a sister, a friend. You contain multitudes. And that just allowed me to take the pressure off parenting and to really just be fully myself. And that I think I agree with you because it's important for my kids to see that, that I'm not just the person who's at home waiting and being at their beck and call. I guess that I also have my own important life.

Leah Roseman (06:56):

So how did you get into weaving specifically?

Maryanne Moodie (06:59):

So I used to sell vintage clothes when I was little. I grew up the youngest of six kids, and we were really poor. You can imagine rich in love and friendship, but pour in money. And we would go to the charity shops, the op shops they call them here in Australia, and we would just find treasures in there. And they were all links to the past. They were all stories, other people's stories that had, if you found the good stuff, then it would've had many lives before it came to you, and it would have more lives as you finished with it and pass it on to the next person, whether that was clothing, books, toys, costumes, fabrics, home furnishings. And so I got really good at finding and nurturing these beautiful stories and these objects and these fabrics and clothes. And I created a side business while I was teaching, which was selling or rehoming a lot of these precious objects.

(08:08):

And one of the things that I loved about it was this link to the past. And so as I was moving through looking for my own artistic outlet, beyond that, I found I was drawn to the loom because it had all of those stories. It had other weaver's hands. I was able to use yarns and fibers that other people had created with love, and they had put their own stories into it, and I was able to create something and then pass it on to the next person. So I felt like there was still an organic link between what I had been doing and what I found at The Loom. I had maternity leave. In Australia, we are very, very privileged and fortunate to have paid leave by the government, and you can take it at half pay, so you can have longer time, less money.

(09:08):

And during that time, I really found comfort and stillness and flow by picking up the loom when I wasn't with my baby. And by sharing that online with other people, I found that I was able to make connections, which is my favorite part, with other people, while I was at home alone with my baby, I was still able to reach out. So then it just moved on from there, from having that connection and then teaching other people how to do it. And then selling my artworks, writing the books. I've got some online classes and I do workshops as well.

Leah Roseman (09:54):

So when you use recycled yarn, you're literally taking sweaters apart. Is that how you started with that?

Maryanne Moodie (10:00):

Yeah, I did. So you can either reclaim wool and natural fibers, which is, it's a whole process in itself, which I love. It creates a stillness in my life. But then also creating fibers from, so I had my Nana's, I was given, when she passed away, I was given some of her beautiful clothes, and she had these silk blouses, and I had them sort of tucked away in my closet, and I hadn't worn them, and I really felt a bit guilty, and I was thinking maybe I could get them tailored, and they weren't really my style. And so I created using the silk shirts, I created long ribbons, long silk ribbons, and I use those to weave an artwork that now sits pride of place in my home by the door. And I get to think about her, "hi, Nana", every time I pass the piece rather than just in the drawer. And I did the same thing with my maternity leave maternity jeans. I created a denim artwork that hangs in my boys' room. So it's sort of finding memory and meaning in things that otherwise might end up in landfill or lost, and really harnessing that into art.

Leah Roseman (11:24):

So your pieces that I've seen, I really like the incorporation of the natural world and also the pieces you do, which are all one tone, all neutral or all black. Very cool. Because you use such texture, more 3D,

Maryanne Moodie (11:39):

Right? Yeah. I've been weaving now for almost 12 years. So my first boy is 12 this year. And over those 12 years, I've had a lot of time to explore different pathways and have different seasons in my own life that called for different expressions. And so I'll often sit, I do have commissions, and when I have a commission, then I will work with that person, that client to bring their vision to life and their story, because we are working together to create something that's going to hopefully be a family heirloom live on their walls for a long time. So I want them to really feel connected to those pieces. But when I'm working on pieces for myself, I try to make sure that there is, the only intention is to listen to myself and to explore with my hands different fibers, try to do the opposite to what I normally do, or do some sketches and try to pull out motifs from the sketches that I see.

(12:49):

And so I feel really privileged that now I have a bank of different styles that I can refer to, and I know that they represent different parts of my life. And for me, the magic is in the actual creating of the item and the creating of the art in the moment. And so once I've created it, it's almost, it's left me, and that art can be moved on to somebody else's story and somebody else's interpretation. And so something that for me meant showed how I was feeling during the lockdowns, during Covid in Melbourne. For somebody else, it can represent a real freedom and an openness and a softness. I love that with art that when I put my intention into it, my viewer might have a totally different story at the other end. That's magic.

Leah Roseman (13:48):

It is. Yeah. One of the singers I interviewed, I can't remember which one it was, I don't want to say the wrong person. And I remember her saying that if she tells what a lyrics are about before she sings the song, then people don't get to have their own interpretation. So sometimes it's better for them to wait and hear what her intention was, and it doesn't really matter if they took something different from it.

Maryanne Moodie (14:13):

Yeah. I wonder, are you the kind of person who likes to read when you go to an art gallery, do you read now? Do you read that before or after you really take time to look at the piece?

Leah Roseman (14:29):

Kind of depends. I like to have context, but I mean, it would maybe look at it first and then read and then go back and look a little bit.

Maryanne Moodie (14:39):

I feel like that's the right thing to do, especially listening to this singer's idea. But more often than not, I will go and read the little card first and then go and look at the piece and try to see what the artist has done. But I like that idea of having your own feelings first before I always feel like they're so learned and they're so professional. If they've got their work up in the art gallery, they would know, wouldn't they?

Leah Roseman (15:13):

Well, through the internet, have you met fiber artists in different disciplines and been inspired by stuff they do that's very different than yours? Maybe different techniques or,

Maryanne Moodie (15:21):

Yeah, absolutely. I think the internet has always been, I know it can always be everywhere, can have its darkness, but I do feel like the fiber community and the craft community and even a lot of art networks can have a real positivity and support to them. I very rarely find any negative comments or people trying to create unnecessary drama. And there is a lot of support, often women supporting women and sharing our resources. And with a discipline like weaving, there is a lot of skills in there, and there isn't a lot of gatekeeping in our craft in modern weaving. There's sort of that idea of a women's circle and sharing your skills to be passed along that we don't really own any of this. We are very lucky and privileged to be able to hold it and work with it and even make a living from it before we pass it along to the next person. I do find that I try to constantly unfollow people, like I'll follow them for a short time and then unfollow. I have some core people who are actually my friends in real life that I've met, but I find that if I follow too many fiber artists, then my work, it can sort of tilt into being inspired by other people's work. And so I try to make sure that I'm constantly taking a break from looking at other people's work to make sure that I'm really listening to myself and telling my own story.

Leah Roseman (17:10):

That's interesting. Well, it was just such a pleasure to meet you, and this is going to be so cool to edit this into this special podcast episode, celebrating Collected Strands, and of course, the links to everything Maryanne Moodie Weaving will be in the description of this episode.

Maryanne Moodie (17:27):

Thank you so much, Leah. I've loved getting to know you, and this opportunity is really exciting bringing both of our disciplines together.

Leah Roseman (17:36):

Thanks.

Maryanne Moodie (17:37):

Thanks, Leah.

Leah Roseman (17:39):

I hope you enjoyed this episode. Pleased to share this with your friends and check out episodes you may have missed leahroseman.com. If you could buy me a coffee to support this series, that would be wonderful. The link is in the description. Have a wonderful week.