Lintault's Career Journey


In 1963, the year after she acquired her Master of Fine Arts degree in Ceramics from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Joan traveled to Peru with the U. S. Peace Corps. There she worked in craft development, assisting weavers and knitters and experimenting with natural dyes on yarn and fabric. This experience was the basis of her career as a fiber artist. In 1965 she made her first quilt, largely in reaction to losing a bid on a quilt at an auction, resolving "I'll just make one myself!"

In 1973 Lintault accepted an Assistant Professorship teaching Textiles in the School of Art and Design at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Awarded a Craftsman Fellowship Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Lintault headed for London's Victoria and Albert Museum the following summer to study their textile collections. She examined seventeenth- and eighteenth-century quilted bodices, handmade lace, and samplers. Being able to touch these objects had a profound impact on Lintault. She felt a connection with the young girls and women who made them, needleworkers and textile artists of historic times.

In 1979 Lintault was awarded an Indo-American Fellowship Research Grant for nine months to study textiles in India. She went to observe the textile cooperatives and traditional textile processes and to learn about the role of the traditional craft person in village life. She wanted to see where "things began" in terms of textiles. Traditional craftspeople impressed her with their ability to work with little or no money, space, or materials, and yet "still turn out something beautiful." Admittedly, she was disappointed with the textile cooperatives, which were more like factories. Still, Lintault was committed to continue her travels following textile history and researching natural dyes. Travel and research have been vitally important to Lintault's work throughout her career. During most of her journeys, Lintault often sought out craftsmen, attentively studying how they worked and "finding out their secrets." Besides the travel experiences that helped define the works in Evidence of Paradise, Lintault's ventures and studies have taken her to a number of other regions-China, Nepal, Hong Kong, Korea, Germany, Austria, England, Wales, Thailand, Malaysia, Argentina, Brazil, Chili, Uruguay, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru.

When asked what she'll do when she retires, she responds with a great deal of enthusiasm, "Go to Nepal and then go overland to Tibet!"


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