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The Body: Images and Commentary

By Linda Rees

Part I: Compilation of Responses.

      Currently the most high profile weavers working with nudes are Archie Brennan, Jon Eric Riis and Sarah Swett. We feature several of their images, but are also fortunate to have a wide variety of other tapestries from many parts of the world.

      The responses to the call for tapestries dealing with the body seem to follow two general directions.  Many weavers state that figure drawing appeals to them and has served a source to explore design esthetics.  For the other contingent, body imagery is used to convey a personal reference to their own life story.

      In an attempt to give each artist’s work a place of its own, the readers are taken on a treasure hunt through the newsletter to find the images. The number of items featured dictates that the images be small.  It will be worth the effort to find a library or friend’s computer to view the color images at our website if you don’t have other access to one.

      In Archie Brennan’s life drawing series, outlines and features are abstracted yet highly expressive.  They capture individual variation in a distinctively stylized way. The series is quite extensive, an ongoing dialog that is sustaining his inquisitiveness. We are treated to the presentation of original drawings along with its tapestry interpretation in his article on page 12.

     Tricia Goldberg writes: “Recently I was at an art exhibition with my fourteen year old daughter, and she asked,‘Why does so much art show people naked when such a big deal is made about women being seen naked or dressing sexy?’ ”We don't know her exact answer to her daughter, but Goldberg states “I find the human body interesting, complicated, challenging, and beautiful to draw.” Needing a tapestry to submit to the small format “World Weaver's Wall” exhibit in 1989, she explains:

     “At the time I was weaving large pieces and I thought it would be easy to do a small piece quickly. I decided to work with drawings from the figure drawing class I was taking. I love playing with the ideas of scale and time. I shrunk my one minute charcoal gesture drawing to fit the size requirement for the show, glued it to a piece of watercolor paper, and painted over it with mostly cool colors. I used this for my cartoon, and sewed it to my little student loom.”

     “Sometime in the designing of Gesture, or beginning weaving stage, I was overwhelmed by the different demands of a small piece. Each stitch took on great importance, compared with the luxury of space in a big piece; a very humbling experience, and a good lesson to learn.”

     “Since I enjoyed the challenge of the piece and the design still held my interest, I decided to weave it 4' x 4'. I wanted to keep the dark lines of the figure, while playing with abstract shapes in the background and within the figure. I reversed the design for the large Odette, back to the way I had seen the model as I drew her. This way I had my original small drawing for a reference.”

     “I loved comparing the feelings I had weaving the same design small, and then big, and I loved taking a one minute drawing, a simple exercise, and turning it into two tapestries.”

below top: Tricia Goldberg, Odette, 46" x 46", 1989
below bottom: Tricia Goldberg, Gesture, 8" x 8", 1989

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