How did the abstract painter Agnes Martin inspire the composition of this tablet-woven band, and what’s the connection with “moments of perfection”? (Click the image to see a larger version)
Close-ups:
The answer starts with a fascination with double-faced tablet weaving and rainbows, and a serendipitous reading of an article about abstract painter Agnes Martin.
Double-faced tablet weaving is my favorite weaving method. It affords the weaver a nearly infinite freedom to create motifs For each pick, each card can be turned to reveal or hide a pixel of color above a (usually) monochromatic background. When weaving I feel as if I’m painting a picture, as shown by these bookmarks, all woven from the same warp:
For my last bookmark in this series I experimented with illustrating a rain effect. The technique was straightforward: Start weaving in black, then “turn on” colored raindrops at random picks. I dusted off my Python programming skills and wrote a little program to generate a list of random picks at which to turn on a color, one for each card. I liked the result:
I dropped it into a drawer and forgot about it until reading Peter Schjeldahl’s article about Agnes Martin in the New Yorker. A painter of abstract art, Martin’s large-scale (six foot square) work, typified by this example, consisted of pastel striped or monochrome backgrounds, often overlaid with a grid.
I was particularly intrigued by Schieldahl’s reference to Martin’s 1973 essay, “On the Perfection Underlying Life.” What perfection underlies life? And what relevance might it have to Martin’s perplexing work? Now hooked, I had to read the essay. A quick Google search found that it’s not actually an essay, but an address that Martin gave at at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania on the occasion of an exhibit of her work. I could not find an exact transcript of that speech, but did find a copy of her notes on Anne Flournoy’s blog.
In that speech, Martin addresses an artist’s failures and feelings of defeat, as well as those “moments in which we feel a joy in living.” She elaborates: “[These moments of perfection] are an incentive to life. A stockpile of these moments gives us an awareness of perfection. … Moments of perfection are indescribable … At such times we are suddenly very happy and we wonder why life ever seemed troublesome. In in an instant we can see the road ahead free from all difficulties and we think that we will never lose it again. All this and a great deal more in barely a moment, and then it is gone.”
Martin’s transitory view of moments of perfection, my experiment with double-faced rain, my study with my son of the scientific basis for rainbows, and my recent purchase of Lunatic Fringe’s 20-color gamp kit of 5/2 cotton yarn — They all came together as a weaving project that attempted to capture a bit of Agnes Martin.
Postscript: The band won first prize in the band-weaving category at the 2017 Minnesota State Fair.