WINSTED — East Haddam actress Kandie Carle took her audience on a voyage through fashion history as she presented her program “Civil War Fashion” on Saturday, Jan. 18, at the Beardsley and Memorial Library.Thirty residents attended the program, in which Carle talked about what men and women wore in the Civil War era.“People are interested in what people wore in the past because they are so different from what we wear today,” Carle said. “We also have a bunch of made-up people in novels which are about different eras. Three things tie us together to people throughout history: We all have to eat, we all have to have shelter and we all have to wear something. Although clothes have been shrinking quite a bit in our era.”Carle said that what fascinates her about clothing from the Civil War era is its understructure, which helped to support the outer look of what people wore.“Back then, it was all about the underwear,” she said. “People wore clothes in layers, plus there was plenty of space people took up when they wore these clothes. Posture was also quite important in fashion during that era. There is very little posture going on today. I don’t think the clothes from this era gives us any posture support, unlike fashion from the Civil War era.”Wearing Civil War-period clothing, Carle said she developed her historical fashion programs after being influenced by her grandmother. “On my 12th birthday, my grandmother gave me a beaded handbag that had belonged to her grandmother,” she said. “It came all the way from Czechoslovakia. She also gave me a stack of photographs which were all black and white. I said, ‘What a bunch of funny looking people.’ These were the pictures that looked like they came out of history books and they are all staring back at you. They were funny looking people in funny looking costumes.”Carle said that her grandmother told her that the photographs were of her great grandmother from the 1890s.“She was only 3 years old when she immigrated from Bohemia in 1878,” Carle said. “These photographs were of strong farm folks who looked nice. But they all looked funny because they didn’t look anything like me. When I talked to my grandmother about these pictures, it planted a seed in me. So when I was in school and looking through the history books, I did not see stoic and uptight-looking people. What I saw was real people, they just looked different from me.”Carle said that through many years of research, she now has more than 275 volumes in her library based on anything Victorian and Edwardian, including books on clothing, lifestyles and etiquette. In July, Carle brought a program to the library on Regency fashion in Jane Austen novels.When it comes to historical research, Carle said she trusts books more than she trusts Hollywood movies, despite the fact that movies offer clearer imagery.“Just because something happened in ‘Gone With The Wind’ doesn’t mean it really happened that way,” Carle said. “The only thing that we can be sure of in the movie ‘Titanic’ is that the ship sank.”“Everything that I brought with me today is as non-anachronistic as I can get,” Carle said. “I dressed up as a woman who would be going to the library from that era would look like. Which means no velcro, no spandex, no pantyhose and no zippers.”During the first part of her program, Carle removed a robe to reveal authentic 150-plus-year-old women’s underwear, known as drawers, that she was wearing.She told the audience that she was wearing a body stocking under her drawers to protect it from any sweat.Carle said that while the drawers seemed to be quite heavy for underwear in today’s society, she said that today’s popular underwear styles would probably go out of style many years from now.“What is the point of thongs?” she joked with the audience. “We should all go out and buy thongs and put them in a drawer. In a hundred years from now, someone is going to go into that drawer and go ‘Oh look! Great-grannie had a slingshot in her underwear drawer!’”Carle then went about dressing herself in the same way someone from the late 1800s would, including putting on stockings, garters, and with some help from an audience member, a corset and her dress.As she showed, it was not easy, with an audience member helping Carle fit into and tie up the corset.By the time her program ended, Carle looked like a woman in one of the Civil War pictures she talked about at the beginning.However, before it ended, she took one more shot at Hollywood movies, criticizing the movie “Lincoln” for historical inaccuracies.“The concept that people get their history from movies is troublesome,” Carle said. “We have come a long way in being historically accurate. But for instance, the way they portrayed Elizabeth Keckley in ‘Lincoln’ was wrong. She was not a maid, but if you walk out of the movie and you didn’t know any better you would think she was the Lincoln family’s maid. So many movie reviewers said that, in their reviews, that she was a maid.”Carle pointed out that Elizabeth Keckley was, in reality, a former slave who became a successful seamstress, businesswoman, dressmaker and friend to Mary Todd Lincoln.“Just because [movie director] Steven Spielberg did not put in three or four words identifying her, everybody who doesn’t know walks out of that movie thinking that she was Mary Todd Lincoln’s maid,” Carle said. “Don’t get your history from movies.”Carle encouraged the audience to study history at the library instead.
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Textile designer Justine Valla sits in her father’s chair, which she painted, alongside her husband, illustrator and muralist Victor Valla, in their Atelier Valla studio.
“I was always drawing as a child,” Justine recalled. Victor dreamed of illustrating magazine covers like those of the “Saturday Evening Post.”
Victor studied design and illustration at Rochester Institute of Technology, then received a fellowship to study painting and printmaking at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaigne. He graduated in 1967. The following year, he received a grant from the Tiffany Foundation to study printmaking in Paris at Atelier 17, an experimental graphic arts workshop founded in 1927.
“What a great experience that was!” he recalled.
Returning home after the Paris uprisings of 1968, he discovered that the magazine covers he’d hoped to paint had largely given way to photography. His agent suggested trying record covers, which he pursued along with illustration and graphic design.
He also began teaching at Kean University in New Jersey.
“Kean had a wonderful graphic design and illustration department. I loved teaching Graphic Design, even though I never thought I would.”
He later taught at Syracuse University and Pennsylvania College of Art and Design.
In the late 1980s, he decided to stop teaching and concentrate on his own art. He moved to Falls Village, to a house on the corner of Minor and Prospect Streets.
“I used to call the studio ‘Minor Prospects Atelier,’” he said.
He continued working in illustration and graphic design, creating book covers for stories by H.P. Lovecraft and other authors, along with magazine covers, logos, advertising and murals.
Justine and Victor Valla in their studio with a painting of Victor’s,”Jonah and the Whale.” Robin Roraback
His local commissions include the green and gold Noble Horizons signage and wall murals for the Stockbridge Inn, the Spa at Norwich Inn, Orchards Hotel in Williamstown and the David M. Hunt Library’s children’s section.
Justine grew up in the Bronx and studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology. After graduating, she took on whatever work she could find, including designing toys and novelty items for Russ Berrie. But her true calling was textile design.
She moved to Los Angeles to pursue that calling, where she learned silkscreen printing from 1960s design icon Corita Kent.
“I was in her program at Immaculate Heart College. All fabric design at that time was silk screen. My first job in textile design was in L.A., creating wallpaper for Bob Mitchell Design.”
Justine returned to New York City, where the advent of computers required her to learn new design techniques. She enrolled at Parsons School of Design, studying Photoshop, Illustrator, Lectra U4ia and Kaledo.
Around this time, she met Victor online and moved to Falls Village.
A recruiter found her a job in Arkansas at Dillard’s, a department store chain operating in 30 states and known for its exclusive designer collections.
“They had the best equipment I’d ever seen,” she said.
She became a senior computer-aided design designer there, designing fabric and preparing purchased designs for production.
The Vallas left Falls Village for Little Rock.
“It was a big move,” she said. “It was a different culture, but Little Rock was very progressive.”
The originally planned to stay in Arkansas for five years but ended up remaining for nearly 10.
Then Justine was hit by a car. She suffered injuries to her leg and head and required four years of rehabilitation.
“I lost the ability to paint after the accident. I struggled to paint again.”
The Vallas returned to Connecticut, this time settling in Salisbury, where they’ve lived since 2013.
After leaving Dillard’s, Justine had planned to sell her work through Printsource in New York City, an international showcase for surface and textile design. But after the accident, she no longer had the mobility or energy to travel back and forth to the city.
Instead, she began selling her work locally at craft shows, including clothing, hand-printed tea towels and floorcloths.
She is currently working on selling her collection of textile designs.
In December, Justine will have a show of her tea-themed watercolors at the NorthEast-Millerton Library.
Victor recently exhibited “The American West: A Pictural History” at the NorthEast-Millerton Library. The series, created in the early 1990s, was part of a commission from the Postal Commemorative Society for which he completed 100 paintings in two years.
He hopes to place the series in a museum and has created books from its images, complete with text. Over the years, he has designed many other books that are ready for publication, including “Looking In, Looking Out,” a cosmic view of the universe.
Reflecting on his career, Victor said, “It’s about doing what you love”.
Justine agreed.
To see, purchase or commission work, contact Justine at justinevalla@gmail.com or Victor at victorvalla@comcast.net, or call 860-596-4282.
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Jane Herold’s beautifully simple dinnerware.
Cornwall ceramicist Jane Herold explained that there’s quite a lot of enthusiasm for Clay Way among the region’s ceramic artists.
“We all need work space, which is hard to find or afford in urban areas. The wood-fire crowd needs lots of wood and outdoor space. This area is great because it’s rural enough for us, but has a wonderfully enthusiastic and supportive population of pottery [patrons].”
While many of the artists are returning from previous years, the loose collection of unofficial organizers likes to keep the event manageable for the public, limiting the number of artists and studios each year. A direct drive from the southernmost point at Ann Heywood’s studio in Wingdale to Herold’s big barn in Cornwall is under 40 minutes. But if you want to catch it all, plan for a full day’s worth of art exploration along some of the most beautiful roads in New England.
Starting at its northernmost point, Herold’s studio will host Matin Malikzada of Afghanistan, whose polished, modern interpretations of traditional forms are instantly recognizable. They’ll be joined by wood-fired ceramicists Steve Johnson, with his raw, organic forms, and Harry Levenstein, whose works relate closely to Johnson’s while making even more direct references to nature.
Herold herself creates work that is both beautiful and utilitarian. Her prolific output of objects is intended to be used by everyday people as part of their daily lives.
Moving south is Todd Piker of Cornwall Bridge Pottery. Piker has been making pots in his giant wood-fired kiln since 1971. The kiln looks more like an ancient blast furnace than something designed to transform clay into ceramics, but over the years, he’s mastered its intricacies and produces an impressive amount of fine work.
A ceramic vase by Kathleen Heidemann.Provided
Piker will host Sanah Peterson, who works at Cornwall Bridge Pottery and draws inspiration from both her time with Piker and her time traveling the globe as a child. They’ll be joined by Stephanie Haines, whose vibrant, eye-catching work features underglaze illustrations of birds, fruit and the bounty of nature.
Further along in Warren, Jessica Dubin’s pieces will be on display at the studio of Christine Owen. Both artists seem to appreciate the chaos and unpredictable nature of clay but find ways to refine it all using their own unique methods.
Heading east to Washington, Conn., Will Talbot’s creates intricate work while allowing for the unpredictable nature of clay to play a role. His studio will house Tom Knox and his wide variety of textures and forms, as well as New York City-based Alex Lebedev, who lets music and the nature of improvisation guide his work.
There will be two studios participating in South Kent. Alison Palmner, whose page on the Clay Way website states she “strives to achieve a lighthearted meld of human forms, animals and the vessel.” Her studio will host Ben Eberle, who trained under the guidance of legendary potter Toshiko Takaezu; James Guggina, whose intricate work can appear both deliberate and whimsical; and Paula Shalan, who blends rough, unrefined surfaces with polished precision in individual pieces.
Joy Brown’s delightful ceramic sculptures.Provided
Nearby is Joy Brown, whose work have become a staple of the area, with her figurative sculptures dotting the Northwest Corner. Brown’s studio will also feature Bonnie Levine, who taps into the beauty of chaos and destruction in her work, and Brendan Moore, whose more utilitarian forms are perfect for everyday use.
Finally, the tour crosses the border into Wingdale, New York, where the studios of Drew Montgomery, Ann Heywood and Amy Brenner will host Jackie Sedlock, Lynn Behrendt,and Kathleen Heidemann.
Brenner creates some of the most colorful and vibrant pieces on the tour, while Behrendt’s work is among the most studied and precise. Heywood creates carefully considered, intuitive forms, while Heidemann moves from simple minimalism to intricate textures. Montgomery and Sedlock both find new ways of playing with traditional forms, producing delightfully distinctive pieces.
To learn more about the artists and download a map of participating studios, visit clayway.net
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