Shawl (Llklla) 1965 - 1975

This striking Shawl was woven with wool, probably somewhere in South America. It’s anonymous. So, we get to imagine how it came into being. I like to think about this maker, somewhere, sometime, pulling threads across, up, and down to create this piece. There's something really compelling about the idea of someone deciding to make something, anything. In this case, it's a beautiful piece of cloth. Maybe it's not so different from my own process with painting. I think about the surface, the texture, the colors—how they all come together. Here the colors sing: ochres and reds and creams. A band of complex hatched zig-zag patterns. I wonder if the creator felt it was an extension of themselves, a tangible expression of their inner landscape? Whether this piece was made centuries ago or yesterday, it’s clear that its artist was engaged in the ongoing conversation that is artmaking—the kind of embodied expression that embraces all the ambiguities and uncertainties along the way.