As entrepreneur and business woman, she worked in the Canadian High Arctic Islands.
She and her husband, Tom, traveled through Europe and North America, living for long periods aboard a 41’ sailboat. She initially trained as a nurse and worked in multiple disciplines, including as a charge nurse for Canadian Blood Services. Linda Wallace, of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, worked in the media of tapestry, surface design and graphite drawing, synthesizing her life experiences and her intellectual curiosity into her artwork. This was the beginning of a long friendship with Linda Wallace, where I got to know her as a woman of large vision and concerns, courage and grit, as well as her humor, artistic brilliance and her vivacious presence. During the course of those days, Linda and I engaged in an ongoing conversation about tapestry-making, the direction of our artistic journeys, what compelled us to work in this medium and how all of this fit into other aspects of our lives.
All workshop participants had the opportunity to weave from the front, without cartoon, on copper pipe looms already warped for use, and from the back with a cartoon on upright treadled looms also warped in advance. We were both in the pre-conference workshop taught by Jean Pierre Larochette, Yael Lurie, Archie Brennan, and Susan Martin Maffei where they compared and contrasted their distinct approaches to tapestry. I first met Linda Wallace summer of 1996 at the HGA (Handweavers Guild of America) Convergence that was held in Portland, Oregon. The Appendix contains reprints from her published articles beginning in 1972 with her first retrospective exhibition catalogue, in addition to articles written about her work, published interviews, and ending with her 2009 article, “On the 90th Anniversary of the Bauhaus Movement: How the Bauhaus tradition has continued to inspire me over decades of tapestry weaving.” This is followed by a chronological visual index of many of her 800 tapestries. She also incorporated improvisation, dissonance with resolution, back and forth movements. She intentionally created tapestries in a manner similar to musical compositions, with the use of repetition of patterns, theme and variations, linear progressions, and opposing fast/slow tempos. Silvia Heyden played the violin and later took up piano. In the course of weaving I’ll add other colors to make it look the way a minor or major key would sound in music.” –Silvia Heyden, p. “For every tapestry, I choose a chord in three colors that resonate together, which for me sounds like a chord in music. Music and Tapestry chapter is about Silvia Heyden’s relationship with music and its influence on her approach to tapestry: Upon graduation in 1952, Silvia Heyden dedicated her artistic practice to “rediscover the truly woven, and revitalize weaving as a distinct art form.” (p.2) Heyden was a student at the School of Applied Art in Zürich, with instructors Johannes Itten (formerly of the Bauhaus) and Elsi Giauque, (formerly a student of Dadaist Sophie Taeuber-Arp). T’ai Smith, (author of Bauhaus Weaving Theory: From Feminine Craft to Mode of Design) establishes the context of Silvia Heyden’s work in the world of art movements and contemporary textiles. Each chapter encompasses what could be individual courses of study. The result is a beautifully designed book that articulates the legacy of Silvia Heyden, her journey of exploration and discovery in tapestry. Silvia’s son, Daniel wrote the Introduction and three other chapters. Following Silvia Heyden’s death in 2015, Françoise enlisted additional collaborators: Stephanie Hoppe, Silvia’s friend and colleague, who wrote the third chapter, “Along the Eno,” Jeremiah Austin and Sabina Stucky (Silvia’s niece) as graphic designers, Loupe Digital that scanned the slides of Silvia’s work, and Massie Minor for additional photography. In 2014, at the urging of her daughter, Françoise, Silvia Heyden began writing this book, establishing the initial four chapters and the placement of most of the large images within each chapter.
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