Lisa Telford

{{Short description|Git'ans Git'anee Haida weaver}} {{Infobox artist | honorific_prefix = | name = Lisa Telford | honorific_suffix = | image = Lisa telford haida.jpg| | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name =  | birth_date =  | birth_place = Ketchikan, Alaska | death_date =  | death_place = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | nationality = | residence = | education = | alma_mater = | known_for = | notable_works = | style = Northwest Coast style weaving techniques | home_town = | movement = | spouse = | partner = | awards =  | elected = | patrons = | memorials = | website =  | module = }}

'''Lisa Telford''' (born in Ketchikan, Alaska) is a Git'ans Git'anee Haida weaver who creates contemporary garments, shoes and other objects using Northwest Coast style weaving techniques. Her work serves as a commentary on Native identity, stereotypes and fashion.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nativeartsandcultures.org/lisa-telford|title=Native Art and Cultures Foundation|date=5 November 2010 }}</ref>

Her baskets may be seen in the collections of The Oregon Historical Society, Hallie Ford Museum of Art, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, the Heard Museum, the Portland Art Museum, the Burke Museum and at Stonington Gallery.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artisttrust.org/index.php/award-winners/artist-profile/lisa_telford|title=Artist Trust}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://stoningtongallery.com/artist/lisa-telford/#current|title=Lisa Telford - Stonington Gallery|work=Stonington Gallery|access-date=2018-09-13|language=en-US}}</ref>

== Training == Telford comes from a long line of weavers including her grandmother, mother, aunt and cousins.<ref name="Stonington Gallery">{{Cite web|url=https://stoningtongallery.com/artist/lisa-telford/#bio|title=Stonington Gallery}}</ref> Despite her Indiana upbringing, she grew up connected to her culture, visiting Alaska for traditional gatherings and potlatches and participating in traditional dance.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/lisa-telford-celebrating-the-beauty-of-nature/|title=Lisa Telford: Celebrating the Beauty of Nature|last=Walker|first=Richard|date=April 27, 2011|work=Indian Country Today}}</ref>

For 16 years Telford worked as a carpenter. In 1996, she took a position as a job developer with a nonprofit organization called ANEW — Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Employment for Women and Men.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/native-artist-low-profile-here-big-elsewhere/|title=Native artist low-profile here, big elsewhere|last=Wright|first=Diane|date=September 13, 2006|work=The Seattle Times}}</ref>

At the age of 35, she began learning to weave traditional Haida baskets from her aunt, Delores Churchill, and traditional cedar garments from her cousin, Holly Churchill.{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}}

== Creative process == Telford stuck strictly to the tradition of form follows function until 2004 when she went into contemporary cedar clothing, cedar shoes, cowboy boots and neckties.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://imndn.org/artwork/3880704-Lisa-Telford-Too-Haida.html|title=Woven: The Art of Contemporary Native Basketry|website=IMNDN}}</ref>

Telford tells of her work:

{{blockquote|I harvest and prepare my own material, using red & yellow cedar bark and spruce root in my work. Harvesting cedar bark takes me hundreds of miles from home and many hours of preparation time. Materials are prepared differently depending on the final product. The bark is traditionally stored for one year and then further processing is required before weaving may start.<ref name="Stonington Gallery"/>}}

After that, baskets can take Telford five to 200 hours to make.<ref name=":1" />

As a young weaver she once sat down and counted every stitch on one of her grandmother's old baskets. "At first my basketry had to be perfect, and then I let it all go and that's when I found true joy".<ref name=":0" /> The artist compares making baskets to therapy, saying it helps her relax from the stresses of life.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/baskets/subpage.cfm?subpage=view_lisa|title=The language of Native American Baskets from the Weaver's View}}</ref> She also called basketry her thread to sanity.<ref name=":1" />

== Collaborations ==

In 2011, Telford worked with glass artist Preston Singletary on an exhibition of women's forms in glass.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nativeartsandcultures.org/lisa-telford|title=Native Arts and Cultures Foundation|date=5 November 2010 }}</ref><ref name=":0" />

In 2011, Telford received in the National Native Artist Exchange Grant to work with Kelly Church. She taught Kelly how to find and choose the proper cedar tree for harvesting, how to split and prepare the bark to be stored.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nefa.org/grantees/lisa-telford|title=Lisa Telford - Grant Recipient|website=New England Foundation for the Arts|date=27 June 2023 }}</ref>

== Exhibitions == Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists, June 2019 -September 2020, organized by the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN

== Grants, honors, and awards == * 1998 - demonstrator at the Suquamish Museum and the Seattle Art Museum<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/archive/lisa-telford-celebrating-the-beauty-of-nature-2W3OPMx1Bk2_TpbYYa3Tvw/|title=Lisa Telford: Celebrating the Beauty of Nature|newspaper=Ict News|date=13 September 2018 |language=en|access-date=2019-02-06}}</ref> * 1998 - instructor at the Sealaska Heritage Foundation<ref name=":2" /> * 1998 - instructor at the Kootznoowoo Cultural Foundation<ref name=":2" /> * 1999 - artist in residence at Eitejorg Museum in Indianapolis<ref name=":2" /> * 1999 - artist in residence at the National Museum of the American Indian/Smithsonian Institution<ref name=":2" /> * 1999 - artist in residence at the ATLATL in New York<ref name=":2" /> * 2006 - visiting-researcher at the Burke Museum's Bill Holm Center for the Study of Northwest Coast Art{{Citation needed|date=February 2019}} * 2011 - received an Artistic Innovation grant from the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation<ref name=":2" /> * 2011 - her work was chosen selected as the catalog cover image for "Time Warp: Contemporary Textiles of the Northwest Coast," at the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art<ref name=":2" /> * 2012 - won first place at the 53rd annual Indian Fair & Market at the Heard Museum<ref name=":2" />

== References == {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Telford, Lisa}} Category:Living people Category:20th-century Alaska Native people Category:21st-century Alaska Native people Category:20th-century Native American artists Category:21st-century Native American artists Category:20th-century Alaska Native women Category:21st-century Alaska Native women Category:Weavers from Alaska Category:People from Ketchikan, Alaska Category:Native American basket weavers Category:Haida women artists Category:Haida artists Category:Textile artists from Alaska Category:Native American women artists Category:American women basket weavers Category:American basket weavers Category:20th-century American women textile artists Category:20th-century American textile artists Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:21st-century Native American women artists Category:21st-century American women textile artists Category:21st-century American textile artists