"After working at Apple, it felt like I had reached the pinnacle of what I was trying to do with my career," Shively says. "I had really started identifying myself with my job, but I had never necessarily set out to work in advertising. All those things end up hitting you a little bit, especially when you hit middle age, and I just started asking myself, 'Is this what my life is all about?' I saw a lot of my other friends taking these huge jobs, like creative director at Facebook or starting their own app consulting firm, but I just stopped working and started asking myself who I was again as a person."
She decided not to jump back into another full-time job, and for the first time in a long time, Shively had free time. Instead of making a New Year's resolution, she decided to try 52 new things (one per week) in 2011. She kept track of them on her popular blog, 52 to Do, in which she wrote candidly about what it was like to try her hand at such activities as learning to roast coffee, ice fish, hike a fourteener, shoot a gun and make pasta.
"Writing the blog started getting me to ask a lot more questions about who I am and what I enjoy doing," Shively reflects. "One of the things I realized I wanted to do was get back to making things." Although she had enjoyed art as a child, particularly drawing with graphite, Shively hadn't made time for it since college.
"I had actually always done art as a kid," Shively says. "However, my first year at college, it became apparent that making art is pretty expensive, and I didn't see a path for myself as an artist at the time. I stopped making art after my freshman year of college, and since I love to travel and wanted to see the world, I ended up getting my MBA and going into international business."
When working for such international companies as Apple, Goodyear and Volvo, Shively spent a lot of time abroad and had little time to explore hobbies. "When I wrote the blog, it was also my first time living in a community like Boulder," she explains. "I had been living in big cities and traveling around the world, so an unexpected side effect of the blog was that I met a lot of interesting locals who made me feel at home, and I rediscovered my crafty side."
The craft project that changed her life happened during week fifty, when Shively went to Shuttles Spindles & Skeins in Boulder (which closed its physical shop in March 2020) as part of her quest to learn how to knit. Although she had originally gone into the yarn store for supplies, she left her first visit feeling inspired by the shop owners, Maggie Casey and Judy Steinkoenig.
"The store was this wonderful collective of women who literally know everything about crafts," Shively recalls. "I saw that they had weaving classes, and right after my blog finished, I started taking an eight-week weaving course at Shuttles Spindles & Skeins. Although I did not begin weaving while I was blogging, that period of time set me on the path to what has really become my main artistic medium."
Shively's exhibition at the New Local, Reply Hazy, Try Again, is up through August 27.
Courtesy of The New Local
Shively's expressive weaves, created by consulting with Magic 8 Balls, tarot cards and other experimental techniques, are currently on display at The New Local's Annex, located at 713 Pearl Street in Boulder. The exhibition, Reply Hazy, Try Again, is up through August 27.
"I was thinking about why weaving became my primary art form, because originally, I loved to draw," Shively says. "I think I was drawn to it after working for Apple, where everything had to be perfect and pristine all the time. Weaving is all about patterns that you make on a loom, and I loved the idea of breaking out of patterns, both as an artist and also in myself. I had been cultivating this sense of control and perfection, so weaving became this really interesting medium for me to let go. What I think a lot of people connect to about my work is this idea of letting go of a sense of control and leaving things open to chance."
Inspired by artists like John Cage and Marcel Duchamp, Shively was determined to inject her work with a sense of play rather than attempt to adhere to a prescriptive pattern. "One of the first things I did to break out of a pattern with my weaving was [to use] objects of chance," she explains. "I would do things like flip a coin, consult with people's astrological birth charts or ask a Magic 8 Ball questions. My grandmother's parents were immigrants from Transylvania, and I grew up with a very superstitious grandmother who was very tied to the occult. I always thought that was just how people were, but I've learned that was special to my family. She would always take me to psychics and tarot readers, so I am used to asking the unknown about things."
The installation honors her grandmother and includes a memorial weaving that pays tribute to her memory. "I dedicated the show to my grandmother," Shively says. "This altar that I have set up in the weaving studio was her table that I sat at in her kitchen growing up. She always pushed me to not follow the rules, explore the world, be myself and do what I wanted to do. I made this memorial weaving in remembrance of her based on her astrological information. She was a huge influence on me, so getting to do a show like this with the women at the New Local feels like a very touching tribute to her."
Also on view are some of her "Records of Chance" and "Embracing Chaos" weaves. These tapestries helped her further open up her work and break out of geometric patterns. Shively can be found in the studio space on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., interacting with visitors, taking commissions, weaving on the loom and providing the occasional tarot reading.
"I love it because I'm often in my house working at the loom by myself," Shively says. "It can be isolating sometimes, so it's been so nice to be able to share my work and explain it. I realize that sometimes I don't always discuss it; I just put it out there, and people don't necessarily understand what's behind it. But more than anything, it's just been lovely to have the doors open and have people come in who may have never experienced art before."
"Weaving is all about patterns that you make on a loom, and I loved the idea of breaking out of patterns, both as an artist and also in myself."
Courtesy of The New Local
Shively will give an artist talk from 12 to 2 p.m. on Sunday, August 20, for those who want to learn more about her process and inspiration.
"In the talk, I would like to take people through the progression of my work," Shively says. "I will talk more about how I got into weaving, the projects I am working on right now, and my future plans. I am getting ready to start another weaving so people can see how it's made and how long it takes [a week to three months]. I always have something in mind to weave next. ... I am also at a point where I want to look into teaching more. I have started doing one-on-one sessions with people who, like me, used to work in jobs like advertising but want to get back into art or do something more creative. It's never too late to try something new."
Reply Hazy, Try Again, through August 27. The New Local's Annex, 713 Pearl Street, Boulder.
