One Stitch at a Time
Story by Kim Broas
Photography by Paul Riley
Her hands are dyed a light shade of blue and the corners around her fingernails are filled in with shades of purple, green and yellow. Beneath the wire-framed glasses that rest high on her nose there is still a sparkle of youth and motivation in her light-blue eyes. After more than 30 years of teaching, Barbara Lewis continues to educate students about her passion in life and it is the simple things that she is most proud of. “I am proudest that I have been a good teacher for so long,” she says. “I’ve never lost my desire to teach or my interest in teaching.”
Lewis, who is affectionately known as “Barb” to her students, has been teaching weaving classes at James Madison University since 1972. Her experiences in the classroom and years of traveling have helped Lewis experiment with color and fabric, making each finished project a mosaic of patterns.
Lewis originally was brought to JMU to teach weaving and art education courses. In the years since, she has taught a variety of classes including pre-Columbian art history and color theory. Now Lewis teaches courses such as introductory and advanced weaving and surface design.
She brings knowledge to the classroom and an abundance of hands-on experience from decades of teaching. Her students leave her class with more than just an awareness of the arts —they have a work of art that is a product of their imagination. “I will be able to pass on the things that I have created in Barb’s class to my children and then they can pass it on to their children,” says Amy Gebhardtsbauer, a senior studio art major. “To have put so much time into something and then be able to see and hold the finished product is an amazing feeling. That is not something you can put a price tag on.”
The lessons she passes on to her students are ones they will never forget. “I have taken away so many valuable lessons from Barb’s class,” Gebhardtsbauer says. “She has taught me that there is no limit to one’s creativity and imagination.”
As a child, Lewis never imagined that she would one day be showing students how to thread a loom. “I didn’t know such a thing as weaving existed,” she admits.
Raised in Kansas City, Kan., Lewis was told by her mother that she would become a teacher. As Lewis, the self-proclaimed “world’s worst speller,” leans back in her chair, behind a desk piled high with papers and books, she laughs out loud remembering her high school days. It is this kind of enthusiasm that she brings to the classroom. Her flare for creativity and her knack for teaching make learning an enjoyable experience.
Looking out her office window, Lewis recalls that growing up in her generation meant a new world of experiences lay ahead, opportunities that women before her did not have.
“I don’t remember thinking I would be anything, but at that time I knew I would go to college,” Lewis says. “We were the first generation that was going to college and everybody was going to go. You were going to go to college period.”
While her fellow high school classmates prepared for graduation Lewis made different plans. “I was going to go to Hawaii,” she recalls fondly. “I was going to teach whales and work with dolphins.” Instead, Lewis ended up at The University of Kansas in Lawrence because her parents told her there was not enough money to go to Hawaii. There she majored in biology. She was not sure what she would do with a biology degree, but she did know that she loved to experiment. “I still love to experiment,” she says proudly.
As a freshman in college Lewis grew bored with the biology curriculum. She often would try and explain to her professors, “‘You don’t understand, I’ve done frogs!’ I was just bored to tears,” Lewis says laughing.
She considered dropping out. “It wasn’t what I thought I wanted to do,” she admits, but her parents encouraged her to stay in school. That’s when she began to tune into her more creative side. She started spending more time with her friends that majored in art. “I would stay up late with all my art major friends telling them how to do their projects.” She recalls how a friend told her one night that it was about time she took her own art classes. With encouragement from her friends and pressure from her family to stay in school, Lewis began exploring the world of the arts.
She started off by taking a semester’s worth of art classes. “We were in class forever and I loved it, I just loved it,” Lewis says. She was in class from 7:30 a.m. until 11 p.m. “We never left,” she says. Lewis was soon immersed in her new obsession
It was in college that Lewis first became familiar with the art of weaving. She took a variety of classes and developed a love for all the arts, especially weaving and ceramics. “But I decided that the loom was easier to drag around than the kiln and wheel and all that stuff, so I had to make a choice at one time.”
After finding her niche in the world of weaving, Lewis says she was inspired to pursue her learning of the arts through Dr. Cary and Dr. DeGraw, two memorable and inspirational professors at The University of Kansas. “They were very, very encouraging,” Lewis says. This encouragement fueled her interest in weaving and she continued to stitch together her newfound passion in life.
Years later, after receiving her art education degree and moving to Wichita, Kan., Lewis went to the library and researched colleges and universities that had weaving and jewelry programs. She wanted to move away from Kansas and teach in an area that she referred to as, “the green places.”
Lewis sent about 400 letters to prospective schools and went on many interviews before she got a call from Dr. David Diller, the former head of the JMU art department. “When he said [JMU] was in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley, I probably would have paid him to come here,” Lewis says.
Moving to Virginia gave Lewis the best of both worlds. Not only could she teach, but the climate was perfect for her favorite pastime ? gardening. The climate in Kansas was not favorable for growing the different kinds of plants that Lewis enjoys, but the warm spring days in Virginia were much more agreeable. “People in Virginia don’t understand how you can kill honeysuckle,” Lewis says. “But you can in Wichita.”
When the inspiration that Lewis usually found in her garden dried up, she turned to others for enlightenment. She has a few heroes. “I was fortunate enough to know two of the first four women that started the whole wall-hanging idea,” Lewis says. She describes how in the 1960s there were only a handful of people who were weaving. “Sheila Hicks and Leanore Tawney were both women that I just idolized, I just loved their work.” According to Lewis, the dedication and time that they put into their work was inspirational.
Lewis was often able to meet with both women. She remembers an art exhibition that Tawney had on display at JMU. She describes how Tawney’s life was pretty much “dedicated to her artwork.” One of her most memorable moments was after Tawney’s show when she answered questions from viewers. One of the students asked her if giving up her life for her art was worth it. Lewis distinctly remembers Tawney looking straight at the student and replying, “Yes.” It was this kind of attachment to the arts that Lewis was inspired by.
The attitude and dedication that she modeled after her heroes is what she brings to the classroom. “Her love for teaching is very motivational,” Gebhardtsbauer says. Junior fine arts major Kathleen Paulicki says, “I’ve never heard Barb say that she doesn’t know how to solve a problem. She can solve any problem you have when it comes to fabric.”
When Lewis gets an idea it “festers” in her mind for a long time. For a recent project that Lewis completed in October, her inspiration came from an outdoor market in Paris. Lewis got the idea to make a quilt out of silk ties that she acquired from different markets around town.
“As soon as I started picking up ties, then a lot of people started picking up ties, it was really hysterical,” Lewis says.
After returning home from Paris with all her ties, she realized what the purpose of the quilt was going to be. Her niece was engaged to a man she met while spending a semester abroad in France. “They like everything French,” Lewis says. “So I got out all my French ties to make them a quilt. So things just kind of go together to make a project that you need to do.”
Lewis likes to weave tapestries and quilts during the cold winter months, preferring to garden in the summer. She ties the two hobbies together because a lot of her tapestries deal with things that are growing in nature. She pulls the colors straight out of her garden and weaves them into her work. Over the years Lewis has done a lot of experimenting with colors that normally would not go together. “You can plant anything by anything and it all goes together beautifully,” Lewis says. “The less attention you spend on planting things, the more wonderful surprises and contrasts of color you have.”
According to Lewis, experimenting with different dyes and different colors is one of the most fascinating aspects of weaving. There are so many colors that you are able to create, she explains. Each color has a variety of different shades and hues that it is capable of creating.
However, all of the color doesn’t always end up on the yarn. The dark clothes she wears are good camouflages for all the dyes that have been spilt over the years.
Many students have walked in and out of her life over the years. While many things have changed, one remains the same; Barbara Lewis loves her students.
“I am proud of the fact that a lot of the students have gone on to earn their living as weavers,” Lewis says. From school and jobs, to spending time with friends there is always a strong demand on time, especially for women Lewis says. “To have your art be able to be a part of your life, that’s really good.”
As she reflects back on her years here at JMU, her pale cheeks become flushed with pink. Her students are a constant reminder of why she chose teaching. One of the greatest gifts a teacher could ask for is, “Seeing them get excited about something that they had no idea how to do before. The growth of the student’s ability is tremendous,” according to Lewis.
Junior fine arts major Lauren Childs says, “She emphasizes quality over quantity. If your work takes you a month or a few years, it doesn’t matter, Barb doesn’t want you to rush.”
While the Shenandoah Valley and the home Lewis has made at JMU is far away from the dreams she once had of living in Hawaii and working with dolphins, she would not change a thing. Her eyes grow misty as she says, “I’ve always had the job that I’ve really loved to do.”