30 Apr Artist Spotlights: Marilyn Evans

If Marilyn Evans is being honest, she was none too happy when her husband, Bill, asked if he could help her with her weaving projects, just, you know, to give it a try. “That rubbed me wrong,” she says. “This was my territory, and I was protective of it.” Finally, she acquiesced and let him try his hand on a piece she’d been working on. But then he added a caveat: She couldn’t control what he did.

“I thought it was terrible, just horrible,” she says, though it’s not clear if she means his weaving or letting go of control. “He did what he wanted, and when he was done, he put it right on the wall in the living room. I was so irritated.” This, she says, was awkward because her husband was proud of his weaving, and she didn’t want to hurt his feelings, so she left it on the wall.

Making matters worse, everyone who stopped by and saw that piece on the living room wall commented on it, letting Evans know it was the best thing she’d ever done. So, she included that piece in her selection of work for an art show in a park in Jackson, Wyoming — it was the first thing to sell. She had to face facts. “It was like, ‘What are you going to do, get mad or put him to work?’ So, I put him to work.”

Sequoia | Willow and Rattan | 38 x 42 x 7 inches

That was back in 1992. Evans, who taught herself how to weave baskets and wall hangings, had been eking out a living at that point. Bill worked for the Forest Service, but a back injury sidelined him, and he took a job at a local school as a bus driver and janitor. “But he was watching me weaving,” she recalls. “I’d gotten a lot better, and I was doing decent art shows and selling, and he wanted to be part of it.”

Once they began collaborating, things really took off. “We did shows from coast to coast,” she says. “We started making good money, so he quit his job, and we never looked back.”

Together, Evans’ work became more colorful and ambitious than what she could tackle on her own. The secret to their successful partnership goes back to that first piece and her husband’s caveat: Once one person passed a weaving to the other, they ceded control. “Not a word,” she says. “It’s his now, and the same when he gave it back. He did the beautiful middle patterns, then handed it back, and I would create something for the top. I would often attach a stick or just braid the top down, but he couldn’t tell me what to do. That really worked; it was our thing.”

Lily | Willow and Rattan | 25 x 14 x 14 inches

And their thing went along beautifully for 30 years, until Bill passed away after a long illness. And though he kept weaving until the end, Bill had slowed down considerably, leaving most of the work to Evans. Now, she says it feels like she’s entered a new season in her life and art. “I think, because of the way Bill and I worked, a lot of what we created involved patience with each other. I’m just dealing with myself now. I find that my palette has softened. It’s more earthy. I still use bright colors, but I’ve toned it down. I think that’s just part of the evolution of it.”

Over the years, with Bill as her weaving partner, Evans’ designs evolved from rudimentary to complex, incorporating natural elements such as animal horns, branches, and metal. When she began weaving, the finished product she had in her mind guided the process. Now she’s freer with her materials, letting them guide her.

Journey (detail) | Willow, Rattan, and Aspen | 84 x 33 x 9 inches

Evans uses mostly rattan that she dyes herself, and sandbar willow branches she harvests along the rivers in southern and central Montana, a few hours from her home near Whitefish. “I have certain times of year when I gather — when the leaves are off, and the sap is down or in the spring before they bud.” She learned this the hard way, after taking cuttings that were too thick to work with. Now, after pruning willows and taking only what she can use that year, she bundles her cuttings and freezes them to keep them soft and pliable. Recently, she’s added hammered-metal embellishments.

North Country | Willow, Rattan, and Reindeer Antler | 36 x 10 x 5 inches

Of course, weaving every day — turning and twisting rattan — is demanding on her body. “I get a lot of body work done just to keep me from being all crooked,” she says, and adds, “I don’t have arthritis. I don’t know, maybe because I don’t really stop. I weave probably every day, unless I’m on vacation. And I make jewelry, so I’m soldering, too. And when I go to bed, I have this giant needlepoint that I do.” And though she knows she should let her hands rest, taking a break just isn’t in her DNA.