FROM LAST TIME
Factory floor? Zach Nagle ’00 and others thought they recognized the fiber room in Saisselin Art Building. “I learned to weave in that room,” he says, “and look at me now, a Milliken fabric designer in South Carolina.” Actually, this scene is the second floor of Clark Street Studio on the old campus.
Ellie McKeefe ’66 (with many others) remembers, “Eunice Pardon, on the right, taught us to weave there. It was a refuge where creativity and individuality were encouraged.” Ann Coleman ’77 also loved its “many nooks and crannies to tuck oneself into and get lost in ‘the now,’ as well as the interesting junk and ‘found objects’ kicking around for inspiration.” Katie Sneve ’76 adds that the building “was supposedly the old carriage house of Diamond Jim Brady (but I’m not sure that’s true).”
The scene reminded Cynthia Richter ’81 of a story: “Eunice Pardon asked me what I planned to do with a weaving I was making, and I said I thought I’d like it as a wall hanging. Her husband, Skidmore metal artist Earl Pardon, said I should make a chair out of it and he’d show me how to weld one. One day I heard them arguing about a wall hanging or a chair… Mrs. Pardon won: I now have the piece hanging on my dining-room wall. They were amazing people, and by far my favorite professors.”
Brece Honeycutt ’83 agrees: “It was a treat to work with Eunice Pardon. I fondly recall her gracious southern manners coupled with her directness and incredible style.” She adds that the large loom in the far-left corner “is an old Ani Albers loom and the one that I used to weave on.”
Readers report that the student in the photograph may be (Shirley) Joyce McAvoy ’77…or Sally Johnson ’77…or not.