2008 Awardee-Erica Diazoni

Erica Diazoni
The Invisible Essential

Artist Statement

Erica Diazoni learned the basics of weaving as a little girl and is currently studying textiles as art with Professor Consuelo J. Underwood at San Jose State University. The final paper in her art history class was to compare something from her textbook with a comparable piece in the same medium. She chose one of the Unicorn Tapestries and, as it happened, the American Tapestry Biennial 6 was at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles at the time so she had lots of tapestries to choose from. She ultimately selected Tricia Goldberg’s tapestry “Stamps” as the comparison for her paper.

Erica said she was “blown away” when she saw all the tapestries on the museum’s walls. She said that she appreciated the possibilities of putting content, especially narrative, into the weavings. Her studies of fabric weaving were becoming too mechanical and harder to justify when compared with the speed and ease of machine weaving.

On one of several return visits to the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, Erica met Tricia Goldberg. This encounter leads to Erica sharing her final paper with Tricia and subsequently, taking a workshop with her several months later. Erica, a beginner tapestry weaver, submitted one of her first pieces, The Invisible Essential, to the LAND exhibition at the Australia National University.

Biography

Erica Diazoni is pursuing a degree at San Jose State University.