Artist Profile:

Sheila and Ron Metcalf used to come up to Lopez Island and visit friends for holidays such as Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July. They decided to retire early--Sheila from her career as a flight attendant with United Airlines, and Ron from selling real estate in Seattle.

It happened that a friend had a question for Ron about a farm property located on Lopez. Interested, they acquired it themselves, and have worked to fastidiously restore the 1910 farmhouse with its outbuildings located on 40 acres. Pulling down the sagging side of the large barn, they left one side open, "sharing it with the birds," and have accentuated the beautiful weathered-grey wood of the outbuildings with green trim that plays off the pods of brilliant green moss that dot the roofs.

Sheila had already been knitting and spinning her own yarn by the time she saw a weaver working at Olga Artworks on Orcas. Intrigued by the process, she then took a basic weaving class in Seattle, and later joined the San Juan County Textile Guild, which showed her the fullness of the work as a community of artists working and learning together. The Guild's workshop committee, which Sheila is active on, will soon bring in artists Judith MacKenzie, a weaving teacher from Montana, and Jason Collingwood, a rug weaver from England.

Sheila often uses rayon chenille yarn for her artworks, for the cold-water dyeing process lends itself to a more painterly process. It can be laid out flat, not just immersed in a large, single-color pot, allowing Sheila to move the color around like paint on a canvas. "I lose myself in the dye process and the weaving, and I think that when we lose ourselves, that's a transcendent moment. You're just right here, it's so freeing." She devises a color palette, perhaps using a postcard or images from a book for reference. Working with color intuitively, she has learned to make subtle adjustments to the color to obtain just the right one for a particular artwork. "I either paint the yarn, or work with the yarns that I already have to create a 'color story' to make the piece."

Among the artworks that Sheila had on display at Lopez Island's Chimera Gallery was a lush plum, rust, and violet jacket that had a peppering of lime green at the back titled "Aurora Borealis." Hardly simple, these time-consuming garments have a startling sensuousness, bringing the wearer fully into the presence of her own body.

"My focus is on garments. Because of the sensuous experience of wearing the piece, and that these are the same designs used over thousands of years, when I give a hand-woven piece to someone, it really matters." This ties in to Sheila's profound sense of connectedness to others, and to those around the world that do textile arts. This past winter Sheila and Ron traveled to Cambodia, Vietnam and Burma.

Sheila says, "There, art is everywhere and everyone is an artist...they know it, they live it, they all do everything because no one has told them not to."

Sheila's Sunnyfield Farm Studio is featured on the Labor Day studio tour on Lopez Island. She says, "the men just love the equipment." The San Juan County Textile Guild will also have a booth at the upcoming County Fair on San Juan Island. Sheila may be contacted through Chimera Gallery at 468-3265.

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