About Us

In Loving Memory

Artist Statement

Two jack-in-the pulpits popped up this morning in my favorite garden corner.

One is deep purple and the other is lime green. But oh! The grace of line and movement in a gentle breeze is so very beautiful. Beauty's gift is in the eye of the beholder. Cultivate the gift. Spend your energies throughout your life in this growth of sensitivity. Cherish each moment and do so in the presence of others. The moment of beauty's gift grows brighter when seen through different eyes.

It is not enough to take courses all your life. Somewhere along the way you must take the plunge and see, think, and create those moments. Many people who sense the art won’t take the plunge - won’t dare to be all that has been given to them, and lies waiting within them.

Why are we drawn to art and exhibitions and the theatre, and craft shows, and picnics with our most beloved? Why?

It is because these things are deeply nurturing events. They bring us closer to deep meanings and stir the inner psyche. They put us in tune with meaningful, nurturing moments. They open our spirits, just so our foot begins to tap to the rhythm of a march and our mouth waters at the sight of a chocolate turtle. Our hearts beat in this rhythm of the life within each of us. The fullness, the richness of the inner person comes to the surface. We are “in tune.” Our inner feeling of life reflects the art of living our life.

Your First Piece !

Keep it - you did it! Surely there were mistakes, but there they are - for you to study. “You can learn more from yourself than from anyone else.” Keep this first piece where your eye will frequently fall on it. Love it dearly, for in this work there is your first quest for hooked art, and for your desire and love of nurturing your “self.” Your first piece may have deeper meaning about the needs within you than anything you have ever imagined. It is a treasure of your spirit.

It is a KEEPER!

Written by Mary Sheppard Burton

Biography

Mary Sheppard Burton is a very special person.

Not only does she deserve top rank among the best

rug hooking artists in the world, she is aware of her

humble beginnings. They have created within her a

depth of character and compassion seldom seen in one

so talented - along with an appreciation for the little

things in life. These often become the monumental themes of her best works of art - from a tiny teacup to a miniature black and white photograph transformed into the magically colored "Moghul Taj." She is at once a consummate artist, an historic researcher, and a world - class teacher.

Her studies and research began in earnest in 1981, when she studied color retention of dyes and the effects of light - comparing yarns with wool fabrics. Among the dyes she studied were vegetable dyes of earlier generations. These color studies continued into the late 1980s, as she delved into dye techniques not commonly used by textile artists.

At the same time, and even earlier, she was recording and analyzing jurying methods at county and state fairs, national rug hooking conferences, and juried exhibitions in the United States, and Canada. By 1982-3, she was chairing a committee that formulated standards for traditionally hooked art for the Association of Traditional Hooking Artists (ATHA). This led to her first two books, Judging by Merit, in 1977, and Educational Standards, published in 1984. These books have been used extensively by home economists in judging county and state fair competitions, and are currently in many college and university libraries.
Meanwhile her teaching career led her to develop techniques and teaching aids (many shared in her book ) for traditional and primitive work, and use them in seminars for beginning rug hookers at Green Mountain Rug Hooking School in Randolph, Vermont. www.greenmountainhookedrugs.com

But all of this research had only whetted her appetite for her search into history for the earliest signs of hooking. Not easily daunted, she started at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This exhaustive investigation led her to the Textile Museums in Washington and Canada (1996), and many on-site adventures throughout the rug-hooking world as well (especially Nova Scotia, in 1997). By 1994, she was actively seeking hand - hooked rug makers around the globe. At this writing, she has located them on six continents, and has created a slide lecture demonstrating their work. She served as mentor and co-founder for The International Guild of Hand-hooked Rug Makers (TIGHR, loving pronounced "tigger"). In May 1996, she received the antique pewter loving cup awarded for Outstanding Devotion and Service to the Organization.
A highlight of her continuing historical research was a behind-the-scenes introduction to the extensive museum collections with Max Allen, Curator, at the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto. She attended the opening of "Hooked on Rugs," at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec, and was conducted through a show for contemporary hooking artists at Wenham by the curator there as well.
When one considers the body of work that was being created at the same time, it seems that Mary Sheppard Burton was indefatigable in all her efforts. Certainly the extensive research and investigation led to many lectures on historic subjects at a variety of venues.

In the early 1970s, Mary was featured speaker at various historical societies, and at the Embroiderer's Guild in Richmond, Virginia - as well as for the Virginia Guild of Needle Woman. She also lectured at the Embroiderer's Guild of Maryland, the eastern Shore Chapter, in Easton, Maryland, and on "Design and Color - You Can Do It Yourself" at the Mid-Atlantic Rug School at Westminster, Maryland.
By the late 1970s, she was lecturing on "Color in Floor Coverings" in Ontario, Canada, and "Historic Tracings of Thrummed Work" for the Rug Hooking Guild of Nova Scotia. "Color through the Art o Dyeing" was featured in Washington, DC from 1974-1981 and in 1981 Mary traveled to rug hooking schools in Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Massachusetts to deliver "Tomorrow's Heritage from Today's Hands."

The 1980s saw Mary as guest lecturer on many of the same subjects, but also on other intriguing subjects like the "Twenty Most Important Events in North American History," "Understanding the Nature of Color - and, for the Japanese Rug Hookers in Tokyo, Japan, "Working in Thrums - A Technique as Old as the Hills."
In her spare time, from 1973 through 1988, Mary taught continuing nine- and twelve-week classes on design, dyeing, traditional hooking techniques - and color theory at all levels. For the University of Maryland Home Economics Department, she conducted five workshops in "Guidelines for Judging Hooked Rugs " for county and state fair judges. For several years, from 1979 - 1981, she taught classes in hooked art, design, color, and dyeing at the American Institute of Textile Arts, Pine Manor College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

And, ever anxious to leave a legacy of rug hooking to a future generation, she taught classes on basic design and technique to ninth grade students, and a special hooking workshop for mentally handicapped children from seven to twelve years of age. Then there were adult classes, "Beginning Rug Hooking" for the Greater Cleveland Embroidery Guild, for novice rug hookers at the Vermont International Rug Hooking School in East Randolph, and through the National Park Service, in Glen Echo, Maryland. In the early 1990s, there followed an "Introduction to Hooked Work" at the Seviers School of Fiber Arts, on Washington Island, Wisconsin - and a series of five-day classes on Design, Color Theory/Use and Dyeing at Seviers. Private classes at her home occurred three times annually, for students who had earlier studied with her, and continued to hook rugs on a regular basis. Her students came from accross the Untited States, and from England and Israel.

Then, as if that were not enough to do while hooking magnificent rugs, raising a family of three daughters and one son, keeping a beautiful Early American home full of history and delight, and traveling on business with her husband, Mary managed to publish many articles - as well as the two books mentioned earlier. Many of these articles have influenced readers to write her, asking how to learn to hook: Lilliputians (Rug Hooker News and View, 1983); Hooked on Trees (Threads Magazine, December 1988); Creative Rug Hooking: Design Your Own Art, Using an Ancient Technique (Threads Magazine, August 1989), Design Your Own First Rug, Hearthside Rug, and a cover, Japanese Crane Cape (Rug Hooking Magazine, 1988, 1989, 1992, and 1994); Hooked on Rugs (Colonial Homes Magazine, February 1992); and All the World at our Feet (Victoria Magazine, April 1994). Chapter seven of Jesse Turbayne's book, The Hooker's Art is devoted to Mary's work (Schiffer, 1993), and the " Tell Me 'Bout" series of hooked rugs were featured in Turbayne's Hooked Rug Treasury in 1997.

Her accomplishments and awards are suitably numerous: A Retrospective of the Rug Hooking Art of Mary Sheppard Burton," a John Wanamaker presentation in both Philadelphia and Washington in April 1993. First non-Canadian recipient of the Ontario Hooking Craft Guild's two highest awards: Best in Show for Creativity and Craftsmanship and Best in Show for Artistic Presentation of Work and Originality. Her "Mogul Taj" was designated Best of Show in the Crafts Collection presented by the Creative Crafts Council of Greater Washington DC (There were 1132 entries in this exhibition.) In May 1996, there was a retrospective of her lifetime work showing different phases of development at Forestheart Studio in Woodsboro, Maryland, and exhibitions of her work at the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore, and at the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto. By invitation, she provided an exhibition for the Wenham Museum in Massachusetts, at the Rochester Arts Center, Rochester, Minnesota, at the offices and residence of the Embassador to Bucharest, Romania, and for The Spruill Center for the Arts in Atlanta, Georgia. Most recently she was called upon to hang one of the Tell Me "Bout series", "A Chicken in Every Pot" in the Library of Congress, and there are Christmas tree ornaments at the Smithsonian that include a precious treetop angel that delights everyone who has the opportunity to see it.

Better still, she is the author of this book, which is her best exhibition yet, and one we readers can enjoy again and again, no matter where we live. It allows us to see that portion of Mary's life that has brought her so much pleasure: playing in the dye pot with color; hooking wonderful, incredibly imaginative, creations - and inviting each one of us along on a journey of self-discovery and adventure that will, as she often says, "Make your eyeballs wiggle."

Mary Ellen Cooper
Editor, "A Passion for the Creative Life ~ Textiles To Lift the Spirit"

To view her obituary, please visit:

http://www.thesentinel.com/mont/obituaries/Mary-Sheppard-Burton