IF: History

   This week's Illustration Friday topic is History, and it took me a while to decide that this image fit the description. Weaving has a long history as a metaphor for the fabric of life and culture. And often, the stories of history are told with patterns of thread that miraculously combine to illustrate them. This weaving has a history too, because it once had little figures within it. But they took the spotlight off the weaving itself, so I painted them out. On the way to repairing the surface, I liked this in-between stage in which the figures are gone, but evidence of their presence remains. Kind of like how many people remain with me long after they are gone from my daily life. The title of this one is Tapestry.

Tapestry

For IF: The routine becomes the pattern of life.

This is one of only a few non-figurative paintings that I have done. It had figures to begin with, but I painted them out. You can tell where they were because I left the weaving dark where the figures had been. This painting was in response to the many stories and tales I have read that contain a weaver character who is responsible for the creation of the paths of life, in particular, stories by Orson Scott Card.