Pondering the Wise and Foolish Virgins

I’ve been working on a fun and unexpected project this summer, a short video lecture on the Norwegian Wise and Foolish Virgin Tapestries. I received a grant from the Iowa Arts Commission and Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum aimed at artists who work in various folk arts. The grant included money for an iPad(!) and two workshop sessions on creating film documentation of your work. In exchange, each participant will create a video that can be used in the schools in Iowa. The video can be a how-to, or studio tour, or give historical information on your craft. My video will be aimed at high school students (and anyone else who is interested!). My intention is to explain how traditional motifs that we might appreciate for their pattern and color held important meaning and messages for the people who owned them and viewed them centuries ago.

I finished part of the video for our second workshop held this week. It was so instructional–both the workshop and my work in creating the video. One thing I learned is that creating a smooth-flowing video with zooming-in to focus on the elements you want to describe is WAY more difficult that crafting a zoom lecture with slides.

I’ll be enhancing and fixing this video in the next month. For instance, I think the sound quality is not great, and some zooming-in may be too fast. There might be a bit too much zooming. I will also make a page with links to the individual works I include; most are from the Nasjonalmuseet in Oslo. Comments are welcome. In the meantime, the video is public; feel free to share it.

This grant was timely, because I feel more empowered in making great documentation for the Valley Grove Tapestry project that will consume my next year.