A textile artist, Ilze Aviks teaches and exhibits internationally. During her career, she has written for art publications, created tapestries for corporate commissions and had her work selected for numerous juried shows and invitational exhibits.
She is also known as a teacher, and the workbooks she has created and sells on her website are often purchased from places such as Spain and Ireland, she said. Aviks has taught at colleges and across the United States and in Canada, as well as in her husband, John Mahoney’s, homeland of Australia.
Aviks, who grew up with parents who were immigrants to America from Latvia, learned handcrafts from an early age. Two of her pieces now hang in the U.S. Embassy in Latvia, and the embassy invited her to teach in Latvia, a particularly meaningful moment.
“That’s what young Latvian girls did, learn all the handcrafts like knitting, sewing and weaving,” she said. “I studied painting in college, and I didn’t connect the handcrafts to my art until I was graduating. My stitching is like painting, only slower.”
When she graduated in the early 1970s, Aviks said there wasn’t any education about the business of art.
“I walked into a gallery in New York City with several of my pieces, and they took some,” she said. “Later, the gallery owner’s assistant called me and said there were some things I needed to know, including that you should never just show up at a gallery without an appointment.”
That was a fortuitous mistake on Aviks’ part. She sold her first piece ever, a multi-colored pillowtop, to actor Dustin Hoffman.
“The gallery was so excited for me when they called,” she said. “Maybe especially because I had just walked in the door.”
Nowadays, Aviks said, colleges teach students about the business.
“I tell young artists to pay their fees and enter their works for juried shows,” she said. “Your work may not always be accepted, which seems like a waste of money, but it gives you exposure to the art world and to potential customers.”
abutler@durangoherald.com
