Billy Ward Gallery BILLY WARD’s masterfully hand-woven tapestries capture awe-inspiring views of natural beauty and transcend a human vision into a meditation on natural phenomena. Inspired simply by nature, specifically mountains, volcanoes, rainforests and the sea, Mr. Ward consciously nurtures his memories and gives them new life as art. His reflections on nature are visibly influenced by his extensive travels throughout the American West, Japan, Thailand, Nepal, Tibet and his present home in Mexico. Mr. Ward uses both wool and silk yarn in his work and is always in search of the finest threads. The wool yarn he uses is hand spun and comes from a remote Indian village in Oaxaca, Mexico. The silk yarn comes from either Salamandré Silks, Inc., a famous New York manufacturer of silk fabrics, or from the Gunma prefecture in Japan, which produces the best quality silk in the world. These threads are then naturally dyed using plants and animals only such as Cochineal, Murex, Indigo, black walnut leaves, Mangrove bark, Fustic wood and Dodder. The rich hues and textures of his tapestries create a luminous effect of three-dimensionality. Tapestry is a rich and powerful medium in which the laborious process plays as much of a role as the artist himself. A tapestry weave is the only one to this day that cannot be done on a machine. The process begins with a foundation of Warp threads on the loom, and then Weft threads are woven in on bobbins to create the actual image. Every change of color and variation requires a separate bobbin and these particular tapestries require an average of 30 – 40 bobbins at one time. This translates into a few inches per week, which is an intense personal investment and pays homage to the fantastic efforts of nature itself. The interplay between color and texture is a response to a vision and portrays the magnetism of nature. Mr. Ward’s education began at age 21, when he was apprentice to Sor Cecile Augurin in Notre Dame le Vieux, Montréal, then apprentice to Don Antonio Diaz in Oaxaca. A native New Yorker, he currently resides in Oaxaca, Mexico.