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Olympics fan weaves the Wasatch
By Carma Wadley
Deseret News senior writer
Sola knows something about making mountains.
For the past 310 days, for 10 hours each day, she has pieced them together a stitch at a time, weaving a tapestry that she hopes will be a lasting legacy of the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Games.
"I love these mountains," she says. "You see how they were folded up originally, and how the glaciers carved them, and rivers wind their way through them; how people came along and built their roads and cities. This view is from 50,000 feet, and you see how awesome they are."
The one-named artist sees herself as a modern-day nomad, and the Olympics have become her own particular Holy Grail. This is her third; she did tapestries in Atlanta and Sydney. From here, she will go on to Greece, Turino and Beijing.
"I love to see what happens to a city when it hosts the world, how everyone cooperates to fulfill the dreams of the city. Somehow they find the land, they find the money, they find whatever is necessary for that worldwide invitation."
But she also loves the Games. "I can't think of anything more exciting than the Olympics," she says. To see that tangible evidence of human spirit and endeavor is inspiring, she says.
Sola spends a year or two in each city, soaking up atmosphere (she's been in Utah since March) and deciding what she wants to do for her tapestry. She works for the first nine months at home, then she she looks for a public place where people can watch the process.
In Salt Lake City, she's been working in the basement of Crossroads Plaza. "It's been perfect. I even had two buffalo to keep me company, and a lot of people have come by. Some even come for daily updates."
People enjoy the opportunity to see an artist at work, she says. "Too often public art just appears, and no one knows how or why it got there."
Her tapestry is 7 feet high and 10 feet wide; she expects it will take about 3,500 hours in all. "So I'll be here into April."
She actually decided on the subject for her Salt Lake tapestry four years ago. She was leaving Atlanta and was making a brief stop in Vancouver on her way to Sydney. "I deliberately drove through Salt Lake on the way and spent one day here. I found this wonderful picture in a Ski Utah magazine, and I knew that was what I wanted to do."
Usually, she designs her own work. But this time she took the drawing by James Niehues (with permission of Ski Utah) to Kinko's to get it blown up to the size she wanted, and using it as a backdrop has worked out the tapestry. It's not her favorite way to work; but, she says, "I had to do it this time. I don't know these mountains, and I wanted to get them right. I needed a map."
She hopes the tapestry will stay in Salt Lake City as a lasting reminder of the Games. "I'm in contact with all the corporate sponsors. I think it would be nice if one of them would purchase it and give it to Salt Lake as a thank-you gift for being such a gracious host."
That almost happened in Sydney, she says. Instead her tapestry ended up going to San Diego. "A businessman bought it for the lobby of his building. He employees a lot of Australians, and they get to walk by Sydney every day."
But she would really like her Wasatch Mountain tapestry to stay here, because she truly believes that Salt Lake City put on Games to match its mountains.
"I spent two years in Sydney and thought that no one could top that. But Salt Lake City did. Sydney and Atlanta captured the spectacle. Salt Lake City added the emotion and the drama. Salt Lake City touched our hearts. We all cried at the opening ceremonies, and that put the Games on another level."
Part of that was the feeling of healing that came after 9/11, she says, but a lot of it was the warm and wonderful atmosphere created by the people here.
"After I spent that one day here, I couldn't wait to come back. There's a lot to be said for the values you hold here."
Though this is only her third Olympics, it is actually her 36th tapestry. Her first was for an international Expo in Vancouver in 1986.
Sola is originally from London. "My mum's still there. And I pop in for a visit between tapestries. She's 90 now."
But, says Sola, she always loved to travel. "I think lying on the beach would be boring, so I tend toward the other end of the spectrum; I work myself to death," she laughs.
Sometimes, she admits, it gets lonely. "I have to start over each time. I have to find a dentist, a hairdresser." But she was originally drawn to tapestry work because of the solitude. "I had been in the restaurant and music business, constantly surrounded by people." She chose her artistic name, Sola, because it is a feminine name for alone in Spanish.
Why tapestry? "Well, I couldn't paint. But I always liked knitting. This is just like knitting socks on a grand scale."
If she has her way, Sola will do 20 more tapestries before she dies at age 100 or so. "That's only 17 more Olympics to go."
Whether on not she achieves that goal, she hopes the tapestry of her own life might inspire others to follow their own dreams.
That's what makes life so rich and worthwhile, she says: weaving together the dreams, the visions; taking risks — making your own kind of mountains and then striving to reach for the top.
E-MAIL: carma@desnews.com
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March 15, 2002
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