Christine Jablonski: Threads of Impressionism

Threads of Impressionism is a woven dialogue between contemporary textile artist Christine Jablonski and three turn-of-the-20th-century women Impressionists: Gertrude Beals Bourne (1868-1962), Beatrice Whitney Van Ness (1888-1981), and Anita Willets-Burnham (1880-1957). Jablonski translates her predecessors' painterly languages into textiles, using euroflax, cotton, and linen as her own palette. Through reimagining selected works by these three artists in a medium long tied to domestic labor, Jablonski aims to honor the lineage of women who have expanded, challenged, and transformed the boundaries of their fields.  

Threads of Impressionism is an exhibition that looks forwards and backwards at once, reinterpreting and reexamining the subjects, materials, and tools with which women artists have traditionally been associated. Jablonski sees the exhibition as an exploration of the inherent differences between the media of weaving and painting, and revels in possibilities created by both the limitations and freedoms of this juxtaposition. She further states of her work:  

'Painting is an inherently flexible medium—responsive to gesture, color, and spontaneous decision-making. Weaving, by contrast, is defined by the strict limitations of warp and weft, requires foresight and structure, and where creativity is bound by constraint. Historically, weaving has been relegated to the realm of "women's work," valued for its domestic utility as opposed to a vehicle of artistic expression. In returning to the loom to interpret the work of women painters, I explore the tension between freedom and limitation, between a medium traditionally celebrated as fine art and one historically dismissed as craft.' 

To honor each artist's vision, Jablonski has carefully selected weave structures she feels resonate with the individual styles of Bourne, Van Ness, and Willets-Burnham. For Bourne, a Boston-based watercolorist, Turned twill is used. This enabled Jablonski to work with many colors at once, allowing for hues to gather or evaporate across the surface, such that the weavings become a vibrating field of saturated threads, much like Bourne's canvases. For Van Ness, a New England painter and art educator, Jablonski chose crackle, a structure that inherently emphasizes the play of shadow and illumination, reflecting Van Ness' devotion to light and shifting tones. Overshot became the foundation for works inspired by Willets-Burnham, a world-traveling watercolorist and teacher from Chicago. Overshot amplifies grids and the geometric bias of weaving, mirroring Willets-Burnhams' exploration of form and structure. 

Pairing her weavings with paintings and watercolors, Jablonski makes visible the enduring influence of Bourne, Van Ness, and Willets-Burnham, creating a throughline bridging her reappropriation of 'craft' with the trailblazing oeuvres of early 20^th century working women artists. Translating brushstroke to thread, Jablonski sees her loom as both homage and subversion – a site where constraint reveals possibility and the overlooked becomes a vessel for reinterpreting the past.  

Christine Jablonski is an award-winning fiber artist whose work fuses traditional weaving and other techniques with contemporary interpretations of personal history, current events, and the narratives connected to women's creative labor.

Rooted in a deep respect for the structural intelligence of the loom, Jablonski's practice reflects both rigorous craft tradition and a conceptual approach to materials. She has exhibited regionally, with pieces held in private collections across the country. Jablonski lives and works in New England, where she continues to explore the expressive possibilities of thread, structure, and the stories woven between them. 

Christine Jablonski: Threads of Impressionism is on view in our upstairs gallery starting December 5, 2025. A reception with the artist will be held Sunday, December 14, 2-4pm.