Fabric Garment Celebrates the Plumage of the Meadowlark

Meadowlark garment in the studio (Courtesy photo).

James Ed. Ducey

A distinctive cloak inspired by the colors, textures and patterns of meadowlark plumage was created by Robert Hillestad to commemorate the 2007 season of the Meadowlark Music Festival.

Meadowlark in Fiber has qualities with a remarkable similarity to plumage, achieved by careful attention to the selection of materials, said Hillestad, an internationally known fiber artist chosen for this season's festivities. Each year The Lark Society, sponsors of the annual event, invite a visual artist to create art work inspired by the meadowlark, to enhance the series of concerts.

Members of the Lark Society and their guests saw Meadowlark in Fiber presented by professional dancer Daniel Kubert during an afternoon soiree on April 28th at the Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center, near Denton.

With a wonderfully stylized dance, Kubert started out among the wild grasses, and continued to the nature center, Hillestad said. "It was quite amazing that the dance was similar to the behavior of a meadowlark. Daniel understood the piece and how it should be used." Kubert is New York trained, but now from Lincoln.

Meadowlark garment at Spring Creek prairie (Courtesy photo).

To achieve authenticity of color, texture and pattern in his art piece, Hillestad used a variety of resources.

The recent purchase of the J.J. Audubon meadowlark print, as well as other artistic renderings were visually exciting. In addition to dyeing some of the yarns to match specific colors associated with the meadowlark, sweaters were unraveled to use the crimped characteristics of the once knitted yarns to duplicate the texture of plumage, he explained. Through a hand knitting technique that produces pile, the effects of plumage were created while building the garment structure.

"It was like working with brick to create veneer while building the frame of a house," he said in a recent interview at his central Lincoln home. "The process involved working simultaneously with two sets of threads that included an assortment of silk yarns combined with bias strips of fabric to suggest plumage on the outside and rayon seam binding tape for creating the underlying support structure."

A convincing suggestion of plumage results from his use of silk fabric streamers cut on the bias, Hillestad said. "I carefully selected light weight silk fabrics in colors representative of the meadowlark, then cut them into bias strips, rubbing the edges to create a feathered effect, and building multiple layers of texture by knitting them into the garment structure."

Hillestad started working on Meadowlark in Fiber in January, 2007, spending about 300 hours in its creation.

His interest in bird plumage and colors started once he learned of the legacy of the sandhill cranes, shortly after settling in Nebraska, where he moved to make a career change from being a designer in the apparel industry to a textiles design educator in the Department of Textiles, Clothing and Design at UNL.

A fascination with their colors, textures and patterns soon evolved into an appreciation for the plumage of other native birds. "From there, the urge to observe and study the plumage of parrots, macaws, cockatoos and other exotic birds from far away places was an easy leap," he quipped.

He approaches the study of plumage by first analyzing the interrelated effects of color, texture and pattern followed by attempts to duplicate them through various experimentations with dyes and pigments in his studio.

The professor also recently acquired Birds: the Art of Ornithology, a splendid coffee table book with renderings by leading bird illustrators, and is currently being inspired by the rich patterns in the plumage of tragopans, among the world's most charismatic birds, and the subtle coloration of blue magpies.

"The open spaces of Nebraska make me much more sensitive to birds, trees and other aspects of nature than when I lived in the urban center," he said.

Hillestad regards Meadowlark in Fiber as an initial effort toward moving his oeuvre in a new direction. With ideas for new work usually an outgrowth of his most recent creations, he is already on his way. Although continuing to explore features of plumage, his next piece of art will be in the form of an accessory for the body.

Fabrics from the meadowlark garment will be used for future projects, and Hillestad has also been collecting other fabrics with an eye to future pieces with a plumage motif.

Detail of the plumage of a Mourning Dove, showing the variation in color and patterns that could be depicted in a fabric garment.

"The changes in bird plumage coloration are fantastic," he said. "Plumage is what it is because it is color and texture integrated, and it is an exciting subject where one cannot extract one from the other. The fabrics will look like feather texture of hues, color combinations and iridescent qualities. These are a form of expression for advanced work with fabric color and texture, when worked up to build a piece."

After being displayed on an armature during selected concerts in various concert halls during the Meadowlark Music Festival, Meadowlark in Fiber will likely be on display in a few other local sites before being added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Nebraska Art in Kearney, Nebraska as part of The Meadowlark Collection.

In mid-June, Hillestad was the artist in residence, creating a fabric art piece at the Midwest Weavers Conference, being held at Dana College, Blair.

A comprehensive collection of Hillestad's most recent work, including explorations of plumage, is scheduled to be shown in The Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery on the UNL East Campus in Lincoln, Nebraska in April, 2008.

The exhibition will be sponsored jointly by Friends of the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery, the support group for the Gallery, and The Department of Textiles, Clothing and Design at UNL in which Hillestad holds the rank of Emeritus Professor. The gallery was named in his honor in 1996 upon his retirement from a 32-year career as a design educator at UNL.