Zoar Coverlet c. 1939

Ralph Russell created this drawing of a Zoar Coverlet sometime in the 20th century. It's all about the grid, a network of these little squares of color, mostly blue, red, and a creamy white. I love how it looks both precise and kind of wonky at the same time. The texture that Russell manages to get with just colored pencil is pretty cool. You can almost feel the weave of the fabric, the way the threads crisscross over and under. Look at the fringe at the bottom, each little strand rendered with such care. You can almost imagine Russell meticulously layering each mark, building up the color and density. This reminds me a little of some of Anni Albers’ textile works. Albers was thinking about the grid, too, but in a more abstract way. This is a drawing of a textile, but it also operates as a textile, that tension between representation and abstraction is super interesting to me. The whole thing feels like a conversation about art, craft, and the beauty of simple, repeated gestures.