Archie Brennan

Weaving came to Archie rather than the other way around. As a 12-year-old he knew he wanted to be either an artist or a pilot. It was 1942 and it was beyond him why everybody didn’t want to become a fighter pilot. But at the same time, he was drawing and painting as a family thing. He learned from his elder brother when he was 15 that he could enroll in evening classes at the art school in drawing. Apprentices from the Dovecot Studios (Edinburgh Tapestry Co.) were also attending these evening classes as part of their apprenticeship. He was invited to visit the Dovecot and was asked to join. He was 16 at the time. It was the only workshop in the UK and ½ mile up the road from his home and he saw this as access to a life as an artist.  Read the accompanying essay Archie Brennan to learn more about the work included in the exhibition.

Curator’s Biography

Anna Byrd Mays trained in mathematics and has been weaving since 1982, earning Master Weaver certification from her local guild in 1989. Her multimedia work has been exhibited in juried and solo shows in the US since 1994. Since 1998, she has focused on tapestry, and she has been exhibiting with The Wednesday Group since 2001. The text presented here is based on several interviews with Archie in his NY studio in 2008 and 2009.