We are delighted to welcome Germana Tack as a 2024 artist in residence. Her experience with flax is long and deep and she is ready to teach and share her unique methods of creating art with the natural fibers.
Germana will be offering workshops in Vermont in late May (applications are now closed) and will be on site during the East Barnard Linen Fair in September.
“I am glad that others aren’t using flax in the way I do, so I am not tempted to look at them. There is no influence. It helps me be authentic. Flax is my source of inspiration. Whenever I think I’ll try some other material I am always drawn back to flax: it is my addiction.” – Germana Tack
Germana grew up in a part of Belgium where flax is grown, processed, spun and woven. Her father was a weaver and from a young age Germana attended weaving school and then studied textiles at the Royal Academy. After this she left weaving behind and began to use flax fibers in her creative work, developing sculptural and flat methods for meshing the fiber.
When she was leaving the Royal Academy she reflects, “(In that moment) I don’t know what I do want. I know what I don’t want. I don’t want to weave anymore. Flax is (a material) of the area. I could get it easily. It took a year before I really found my own way with the flax.”
And found her own way she did. For over 30 years Germana has been experimenting, developing and refining her unique process of hand-meshing flax into two and three dimensional forms using felting methods established in nomadic cultures. Her sculptures and artwork are organic in nature and make use of the texture of the felted flax, whether natural or painted. Germana continues to experiment with pigments and color media to reach a higher satisfaction with hues and saturation of color in the work.
Today Germana exhibits her work throughout Belgium and operates a B&B in Kortrijk, a town steeped in flax and linen history. She has a studio down the street from her home where she continues to refine, develop, change and discover new ways to make art from flax.
