United States, Lily Hope, Weaving

Lily Hope was born and raised in Juneau, Alaska to full-time artists. She is Tlingit Indian, of the Raven moiety. Following her matrilineal line, she’s of her grandmother’s clan, the T’akdeintaan. She learned Ravenstail weaving from her late mother Clarissa Rizal, and Kay Parker, both of Juneau. She also apprenticed for over a decade in Chilkat weaving with Rizal who, until her untimely passing in December 2016, was one of the last living apprentices of the late Master Chilkat Weaver, Jennie Thlanaut. Lily feels the pressure to leave honorable weavers in her place. She is president and co-founder of Spirit Uprising, a non-profit dedicated to maintaining, recording, and teaching weaving with integrity.

Lily Hope’s work emerges from a foundation of traditional training in Northwest Coast textiles, elevating Chilkat design to explore current and historical cultural expression.
Tlingit (and Haida and Tsimshian) peoples have recorded history with finger-twined Chilkat dancing blankets for hundreds of years. Lily rigorously studies the adapted formline of Chilkat design, driven to transform traditional shapes into contemporary art. Each work she creates expresses a continued recording of history, from family lineage, to Covid-19 to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Inspiration for her work is found in the technical mastery of historic Chilkat weavings, with a commitment to carry the spiritual teachings with integrity, while pushing the expectation of indigenous art. The merging of ancestral knowledge and contemporary expression confirms Chilkat design as relevant record keeping.

Lily’s contemporary works in textile and paper collage weave together Ravenstail and Chilkat design. She is one of few designers of dancing blankets. She teaches both finger-twined styles extensively in person in the Yukon Territory, down the coast of SE Alaska, into Washington and Oregon. She demonstrates internationally and offers lectures on the spiritual commitments of being a weaver.

To follow the story of Lily Hope, find them on social media here.