Lydia Van Gelder – her work is brightening someone’s life

The striking piece shown above is called “Mosaic Textile.” It was made by Lydia Van Gelder. There is a story behind its appearance here.

I received an e-mail from a man in Palo Alto with the subject line, “Lydia Van Gelder now brightens my every day.” I don’t know him. He said that Lydia’s work was on his office wall. He attached a photo he had taken.

He explained, “Recently our Art Center made available some art work that had been donated by individual artists that we could request for installation in our office space. I went over to the Art Center and after looking at quite a few pieces, ended up choosing a piece by Lydia Van Gelder.” He continued, “I’m not someone that knows a lot about art other than how it makes me feel or react and I’ve got to say that I just really enjoy this. The color is great, the design outstanding, and it brightens the room…. I’ve taken a couple photos and e-mailed them to friends and they all comment about how much they love the piece. One, a buddy of mine that works in Latvia [and] collects art, … just raved about it.”

I was surprised and delighted to receive his e-mail. He thought perhaps I could get in touch with Lydia to tell her how much he was enjoying her work. I had posted two items about Lydia on my blog and he found them when he was searching for information about her on the web. I am now trying to find a way to pass on his message.

Lydia was my first fiber art teacher way back in the early 1970s. She wrote two books on Ikat dyeing and weaving. Here are links to my posts about Lydia – how to buy a thermometer, and tempting fibers.

It is wonderful when art speaks to a person. So, quilt artists and fiber artists keep up your creative work, you never know where it might land and brighten someone’s life.

This is a picture of Lydia’s foot in a wild hand-knit sock that I saw in January.