Fiber makes thread
Thread are lines
Weave with lines
Up and down
Back and forth
Over and under
In and out
Weaving makes materials
Materials are flat areas
Flat areas make forms
[A short Poem from her notebook, translated from German to English by Bianca Landworth]
Trude was thorough in presenting and explaining technical material in her weaving processes. She stressed the importance of understanding the specific components according to the origin of the fibers. She encouraged her students to get to know and love materials by touching, listening, seeing, tasting, and smelling them. She felt flexibility was valuable, having an open mind, and not starting with preconceived ideas.
"Choose a weave that expresses the thread best. Listen to the warp. Imagination is wonderful, if toned down. Always think in terms of how can one do this more simply to achieve the same effect (Bray 22)."
Born in 1910 in Germany, and with both parents as artists, Trude was surrounded by the arts of all mediums and forms growing up. Trude applied at the School of Fine and Applied Arts in in Halle-Saale, Germany where she was trained by Bauhuas instructors where Trude discovered her love for weaving. In 1933 she recieved her Diploma of Arts at the Textile Engineering School, Berlin. After receiving her diploma Trude took a positiion at the Dutch handweaving production studio at Het Paapje.
From 1934 to 1947, Trude created rugs, upholstery fabrics and other custom textiles for the handweaving production studios. Her family migrated to the United States in 1933 and settled in North Carolina, both parents taking teaching positions at the Black Mountain College in North Carolina. In 1947, after her fathers death, Trude joined her sister and mother teaching at Black Mountain with the invitation by Josef and Anni Albers.
In 1949 Trude was invited to teach at Pond Farm Workshops in Geurneville, California, which was a Bauhaus inspired school founded by Marguerite Wildenhail, a former teacher The School of Fine and Applied Arts in Halle-Saale.
In 1949 Trude married and moved to San Francisco where she began teaching at California College of the Arts and Crafts and at San Francisco Art Institute. During the 1950's she combined both weaving and teaching into one curriculum and joined the faculty of CCAC as a full-time instructor in 1954. Trude served as the chair of the crafts department from 1960 until her death in 1976.
Her works were based on her observations of nature. Poetry and Painting also had an influence in her tapestries and pictorial weavings.
Within her last couple weavings, they became very expressive of her feelings and descriptive of her life.
"Except that more and more an awareness of our ties with the universe seems to occupy my feelings and I sense a quietening of passions in our personal lives which gives strength and freedom from anxieties (Bray 19)."
Through her classes she strived to "initiate the inventive capacity of thinking in a specific medium. Through manual and mental experimentation in the matter, the awareness of the organic development which proceeds the final design becomes and experience. With the understanding and achievement of this inherent order one element for true Textile designing is established! Together with the knowledge of raw materials, color, texture, construction and the interchanging influences of these elements on each other, the basic equipment towards creative design is found (Bray 6)."
She passed away in 1976 but continues today in spirit, leaving a legacy that is shared with all artists of substance: the ability to produce expressive work, which went beyond meticulous craftsmanship, mastery of means, and even personal imagery, to communicate to others, a wealth of human experience.