Meet Katie Glusica

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Katie Glusica. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Katie, really appreciate your meeting with us today to talk about some particularly personal topics. It means a lot because so many in the community are going through circumstances where your insights and experience and lessons might help, so thank you so much in advance for sharing. The first question we have is about divorce and how you overcame divorce and didn’t allow the trauma of divorce to derail your vision for your life and career.

All relationships come with risks. In the U.S. 1 in 3 women will experience domestic abuse, but no one teaches you what that looks like and how that starts. I was able to safely break the cycle of domestic abuse in my marriage with support and guidance from the amazing people at The Women’s Center in Tysons, VA. The hardest part to overcome was other people’s reactions to calling abuse by its name. Some people understood without question and others found it a challenge to the status quo and their own controlling behaviors or were just dismissive. Early in the process of leaving and breaking the silence about my situation, a person very close to me said, “Well, if you end up dead I will know who did it.”, and that made me even more determined to leave before something worse could happen. The Women’s Center counselor who helped me wanted me to share my story as often as I can because I did what most people won’t or can’t, and that is to break the cycle of control and violence before you end up in the hospital or dead. Unfortunately, most women end up being judged either way – others deciding if something wasn’t so bad unless you were badly injured or wondering why you didn’t leave if you are injured or killed. This is a hard but important story to share, divorce is the hardest thing I have been through but what I learned about the cycle of domestic violence and how to prevent it has changed my life and what I have to share. Don’t be afraid of the truth and ask for help, and keep asking even when someone doesn’t understand – ask other people and find a professional. Breaking the silence is breaking the violence!

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I was fortunate to end up at the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA for a BFA and found the Craft/Material Studies department, specifically weaving. I was instantly enamored with the whole department, but weaving was especially for me. Glass work, mostly casting, became another fascination of mine. As a close second to glass, I started weaving with clear nylon monofilament. While I was learning how to weave, I got a job at a rug cleaning and restoration company called Christian Lorraine, still operating today. I fell in love again, this time with handmade rugs, the people who made them and most importantly the process of restoring them. The experience of learning to weave at the same time as learning to repair weavings laid the foundation for my practice to this day. I moved from Richmond, VA to Savannah, GA to begin my MFA program in Fibers at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). SCAD had a very special loom and I fell in love again, this time with jacquard weaving and it’s historic connection to computing technology. In graduate school I also returned to weaving with monofilament, this time expanding on a conceptual curiosity I have about quantum physics and how the interconnected dualism of weaving has been used as a metaphor to describe the nature of the universe in many cultures throughout history. My work continues to use weaving and monofilament as metaphor in human scale installations to explore the nature of life and our experience of it. For my last solo exhibition, FENCED, I wove a 45 foot long piece of cloth about the experience of time in weaving – as a process it is like having the past, present and future all at once. It was woven out of monofilament, paper, silk/stainless steel and paper. The cloth was installed in a way that the viewer would be able to walk up to it, under it and around it, while being able to see through it, navigating real and perceived limitations. In addition to making art, I sometimes teach as a professor in the SCAD Fibers department and have a busy restoration practice in Savannah for hand made rugs, chair seat weaving like caning, and wicker furniture restoration – all of which started with a frame loom weaving in my very first textiles class that my college luckily had.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Resilience, tenacity and flexibility. Maintaining curiosity and humor as often as possible is key to moving through it all. I think learning how to make things and fix things can bring about new understandings and experiences of life creating a very special kind of satisfaction. I think continuing one’s education and learning new skills is a way to maintain resilience, tenacity and flexibility. I think that learning hand making skills, even just one, can exercise and expand your mind to new ways of thinking.

Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?

I can’t say one person because it’s been a tide of friends, colleagues, counselors and professors. These are the relationships that I have learned the most from throughout life. It’s all about relationships. I learn the most from the process of creating and nurturing good relationships as a priority in life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.katieglusica.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katieglusica/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katie.glusica/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-glusica-3021b515