Welcome to this week's episode of In Fairness Inquire: Roscommon Artists, a special series of our podcast dedicated to interviewing astounding creative artists that are based here at home in Roscommon. In these interviews we will be talking to actors, theatre-makers, drama facilitators, comedians, writers, directors, poets, producers, a dancer and a weaver. We will discuss how they started in their profession, obstacles they have faced, how they have been impacted by the pandemic, the importance of creativity in their lives, their influences, how they stay motivated to keep creating and most importantly how you, the listener, can support their work. We are keen to make our audiences all around the world aware of the constant stream of Roscommon-based creative work. We also hope this series will encourage some of you to support local art, recognise its necessity and maybe even pursue some creative endeavours of your own. This series comes to you thanks to the generous support of Roscommon County Council who have kindly commissioned this series and endorsed us with the necessary equipment and software to record the interviews safely and remotely during the Summer of 2021.Frances Crowe is originally from Waterford and studied fine art at NCAD, where she discovered her main craft, tapestry weaving. This unique medium includes weaving materials like wool or silk through a vertical warp of light cotton on a loom. The craft is so unique that one must go to a private school, such as Frances’s studio in Grange, to learn it as it isn’t taught widely in art colleges. Frances came to Roscommon after taking a leap of faith and responded to an ad for the Strokestown craft centre, leaving behind a pensionable teaching job in Ballyfermot. Tapestry weaving is a slow and intricate process, and Frances paradoxically describes herself as a busy and fast-paced person who likes quick results. However, the weaving can bring about a meditative state of mind that comes from the intense focus and methodical approach to the craft. Frances is mainly inspired by current events she hears about on the news, and by the long walks she takes around the countryside she lives in. She writes, draws, thinks and follows a structured plan to build the foundation of her next tapestry, including building the loom and warp on which it is to be made. Once the colour plan is made, the size and scale is decided and the painting is set up behind the warp, then she can begin weaving. Frances talks to us about the material she uses, how she blends threads together to get the tone she’s looking for and how she used to spin her own wool from scratch, using onion skins and berries to dye it. She now teaches this to her students, describing the wool’s journey from the lamb to a piece of clothing like a scarf. Frances describes an awakening she had in 2015 when she started hearing more about the Syrian war. She made the decision then to create strong statements in the work that she made that would provoke something in the viewer to question the world around them. This marks the beginning of her work Displaced, a commentary on leaving home and travelling to safety. Frances worked with Syrian families in the direct provision centre in Ballaghdereen, teaching them to weave and learning about their stories of how they got to Ireland. These, along with a story about a Roscommon family who left for Toronto during the Great Famine, were the inspiration behind Displaced, along with weaving techniques such as Ghosting, in which some of the characters travelling across the tapestry are faceless as they search for a new home. Frances talks us through her other works and the fascinating process of their creation, as well as the international fibre arts festival she set up in Roscommon in 2016. This was to create a hub for weavers like herself, as their craft would not be as commonplace in mainstream galleries as one would expect. Frances has traveled around the world to meet with other like minded artists and continuously strives to make her work fresh, exciting and personal. This is a gorgeous, wholesome chat with one of Roscommon finest artists, Frances Crowe.You can keep up with Frances on her website francescrowe.com, where you can find more updates on the Táin Tapestry, or when her new work Love in the time of a Pandemic will be exhibited. You can find our podcast, In Fairness, on Acast, Spotify and Itunes.You can hear more from us and our interviewees on our Instagram, @infairnesspod, same on Twitter, and In Fairness Podcast on Facebook. Feel free to get in touch on any of these platforms with any questions or suggestions that you may have for us. Thank you again to Roscommon County Council for supporting us to create this series, and to our wonderful mentor Catherine Sheridan for keeping us in check and bringing us both together at the very beginning of our journey. You have been listening to In Fairness Inquire: Roscommon Artists, Research and ...
