Donya Stockton My Life in Basketry
I have been interested in "crafts" since I was a kid: macrame, friendship bracelets, leatherwork, embroidery, beadwork, tie-dye, cross stitch, soap making, candle making, paper making, bookbinding... I tried it all and almost nothing "stuck," but when I took my first basket class in 1994, I immediately fell in love. It felt like I had finally found the thing my hands were meant to do.
I started teaching basketry classes through the University of Texas Informal Classes and Austin Community College while finishing my BA in Anthropology and Art History, with a focus on Native American Arts. I wove extremely traditional, utilitarian baskets, but in my mind, I thought about ways to push the boundaries of traditional baskets. I made so many bad sketches of ideas, but couldn't bring myself to attempt to make them because in my mind, a basket could only be a certain shape, made with certain natural materials, and only in specific colors, the way they had been made for centuries..
In 2007, I went to my first fibers conference, Convergence, held by the Handweavers Guild of America in Grand Rapids, MI. There, I met JoAnn Kelly Catsos who encouraged me to attend the next National Basketry Organization conference in Athens, OH. In Athens, I met basketmakers I had admired for years: Flo Hoppe, Jiro Yonezawa, JoAnne Russo, and Mary Hettmansperger to name just a few. It was an incredible and eye-opening experience. For the first time in my life I was surrounded by like-minded people, people who spoke my language. They were friendly and supportive and welcoming; I had found my home.
Four days in class with Mary Hetts changed my life, and my work, forever. I had had so many ideas over the years of things I wanted to weave, but they weren't "baskets", so those ideas had just never come to fruition. But, on the second day of our class, where we were just "playing" with some materials, Mary came by and asked where the piece was going, what I wanted to do with it, etc. I had begun a sort of ribbed basket, and she asked me how I was going to finish it. I replied that I wasn't sure, I had some ideas, and tried to describe them, and she said that sounded fantastic, but I told her that that wouldn't be a "basket" because that's not what a basket looks like. Mary Hetts just looked at me and laughed "Says who?"
"Says who?" changed my life. It managed to free me to break with tradition and make the baskets I had been dreaming of for years. I was still extremely busy with a hectic career and just daily life, so I could only manage to make one or two a year, but they were well received and exhibited nationally.
I took classes whenever I could, in every possible form of basketmaking and from all the best teachers I could find. I learned all the techniques and materials I could–willow, skeined willow, willow bark, coiling (pine needles, sweetgrass, wire), twining, twills, ribbed construction, Shaker styles, Nantuckets, black ash, river cane, birch bark, cedar bark, white oak, even paper. But on my own, my pieces were becoming more experimental, completely non-functional "baskets".
In 2017, my husband and I had the opportunity to move to Oaxaca, Mexico, and we decided it was time for a change. We sold everything and settled in this beautiful, colorful, magical city. In my frequent walks down the picturesque cobblestone streets, I discovered that the beautiful flowering trees like Jacaranda, Framboyán, and Lluvia de Oro all have fantastic seed pods, and started wondering how I could incorporate them into my work. I also started taking classes in the common dyes of the area: cochineal, indigo, and marigold especially. As such, life in Oaxaca has dramatically and fundamentally changed my work and how I approach shape and form.
It has always been a feature of my work that I do not want to interfere with the viewer's interpretation of my pieces. I feel like if I title a piece with a descriptor then it will influence the viewer's relationship with the piece. In the beginning, I numbered the pieces fairly randomly, but during the Covid-19 pandemic, I started weaving while listening to audiobooks. So, now each piece shares its title with a book!
My humble beginnings, first basket 1994
Over the years, I have had the honor of meeting, and learning from some of the best basketmakers in the world, many of whom I now consider dear friends. I proudly served on the board of directors of the National Basketry Organization, and helped found the Texas Basketweavers Association. My work has been shown in galleries and exhibitions across the United States.
Number 15, the first of the sculptural baskets
2008
Recently, I have started thinking again about the future of my work, and the future of basketry. I have such a wide breadth of basketry knowledge and, as an anthropologist, I feel compelled to share the techniques and skills I have learned over the years to help people learn to make structurally sound baskets of any style or shape. But, I also love the freedom of sculpture and would love for people to be able to experience that fluidity and movement in their own work. For me, it's not enough to create arcs and swirls and curves in weaving, the basket should also be technically correct and solidly built. You have to know the rules to break them, as they say. So, to that end, I will soon be putting together a series of seminars and retreats, both here, in Oaxaca, and through BeArtz in Sauveterre-de-Béarn, France. I hope that you will stay in touch, and join me on one of these gorgeous retreats to explore the structure and substance of creating sculptural baskets.
Me in my happy place, Stowe Basketry Festival 2012
2012 Board of Directors, National Basketry Organization
(L to R) Lois Russell, Donya Stockton, Susi Nuss, Helene Meyers, Michael Davis, Jo Stealey, JoAnn Kelly Catsos
"Betrothed" (named for the 19th century novel), dyed with cochineal and indigo, incorporating framboyan pods and driftwood found in Oaxaca.
Exhibition poster for Small Expressions, Tampa Museum of Art, 2008
