Here’s another textile designer discovery for my files: Tammis Keefe. From what I’ve seen on-line, she produced a plethora of thematic (and quite whimsical) textile designs during the 1950′s, illustrating such subjects as: dragonflies, cats, santas, acrobats, lion trainers, chairs, bottle collections, etc.! While I didn’t know her name before this week, her patterns seem intimately familiar. I don’t know if this is a function of the direct scope of her own work or whether a slew of copy-cats were inspired by her designs. There seem to be a sizable array of Tammis Keefe hankies available for purchase, both on Ebay and at Ruby Lane. She also produced patterns for scarves and tea towels.
Keefe had so many designs. It was fun figuring out just a few of her many themes, with several examples of each.
http://www.nwfestival.com (not a company, a personal website)
I work for Jim French aka Rip Colt who is the legendary artist/photographer of gay beefcakes. He designed extensively for Tammis Keefe when he started his career as an illustrator, We still have original artwork in our archives. He told me that he got in a bit of a row with her early on because she was signing her name to his designs. After that his designs were sold without signature. He said that while she was very strong on designs his illustration work was much better. He also told me that Tammis and her female lover threw lavish parties in their country home.
I asked him about Tammis Keefes partner/lover and he told me she was Jane Trahey the famous, pioneering woman ad exec. and author.