'Woven'

If you ever wove a lanyard in camp, you have a rudimentary idea of how basketry is made. Now consider what it takes to turn that weaving process toward a larger, three-dimensional shape with curves or angles. We’re just beginning. Adding complex undulous shapes, lids, handles and embellishing it with colorful design is still just weaving kindergarten.

Watch a lace maker and you’ll see mathematically complex, gorgeous designs appearing out of rapidly sailing bobbins. Still not there yet.

Think Medieval tapestry or an Asian carpet. Now you’re starting to see why weaving costs so much, because every single knotted thread is hand-tied in a complex mosaic design, that design elaborate in itself.

If you’re starting to get the picture, add to that going out into the woods and laboriously producing every threadlike cane from an ash log, adding in vegetable hand-dyeing, and topping it off with intricately woven porcupine quills. We’re getting closer now, because that’s just the starting point for Maine Native American Frey’s creations.

There’s a 10-minute introductory video of his process that shouldn’t be missed. You will be suitably impressed with just how painstaking and brilliant his creations are. I won’t spoil the ending; but I promise you it will be startling.

Then you’ll see the baskets themselves.

Small ones shaped to mimic the forms of sea urchins (yes, Maine has a famous coastal Native community.) Medium-sized urns with jutting notches in swirling colored patterns, topped with lids very finely woven.

And then you come to the larger pots, one at least 3 feet tall, that's lid has a delicate, striking duck woven with tiny porcupine quills in a pond design.

There are more here, a few with woven bird lids, one with a wolf’s head that would make a biologist’s miniature personal talisman (the article photo doesn’t do it justice,) and even a couple with bears — one with an actual bear couple. As though the incredible variation in size, pattern, color and complexity weren’t enough on their own.

Frey’s baskets are every bit as stunning in their own way as those Medieval tapestries that adorned castle walls and now are treasured museum pieces.

For amazement, he even wove an abstract piece he calls “Caesura.” You look at a framed abstract of a geometrically patterned optical illusion, a woven basketry sort of funnel shape. Move in and you’ll be amazed that its dimensionality is not an illusion at all, it’s an actual three-dimensional sculpture with real depth. Nontraditional but spectacular!

In all, Frey’s baskets bear the stamp of classical European or Asian ceramic pots. What they have in common is sinuous shapes and masterful finishes. Yet Frey’s are made only of pliable, natural materials, not fire-hardened clay.

What they do not share is that Frey’s basketry is pure Native American design and method. He is a Passamaquoddy tribal member himself (one of four federally recognized Wabanaki tribes), and he learned this art form from masters of his people, trying not just to create new artworks, but to preserve the skills and spirit of his forebears. Taking lessons from his artist mother, among others, this seventh-generation master weaver is keeping a 13,000 year tradition alive.

Each piece bears witness to a culture almost lost, yet deep, rich and rewarding to witness. These artworks have a spiritual side. You’ll feel it.

Then there’s the ending of that video, but I did say I won’t spoil that for you.

Get up close and personal with the incredible mastery and the elemental beauty of Frey’s creations.

The Cantor Art Center at Stanford University, 328 Lomita Drive, Stanford, (650) 723-4177, museum.stanford.edu.

Bart Charlow, author, artist and consultant blends over 45 years of painting and photography with narrative storytelling. Explore the intersection of observation and expression through his insights on the local art scene, find his books at bartcharlow.com and his art at bartsart.weebly.com.