Uranus at the Riverside Art Museum

The tapestry here, Uranus, conveys the wonder of space through the recurrence of universal forms and the use of black yarns. The design was inspired by a NASA photograph of the planet Uranus taken by Voyager 2 as well as the watercolor of the Black Widow Iris completed by Maria Sybylla Merian in 1700.

The potential and unlimited possibilities of space are felt as orbits of golden spirals radiate outward from the planet. Space continues to expand as it pushed against the woven frame. Uranus’ many moons orbit the planet in Fibonacci patterns. The black hole in the shape of a nautilus shell subtly illustrates the difference between the golden and exponential spiral.

The space around Uranus is woven with a variety of different textured and iridescent black yarns. The yarns were chosen for their absence of color - for their 'darkness' or ‘blackness’. Black yarns which pushed to purple, red or green were avoided. The resulting yarns vary by content, texture and sheen. The piece drapes and undulates through the use of these yarns echoing the darkness and the mysteries of space.

The tapestry was woven by a textile artist who is inspired by mathematics; intrigued by tapestry and taquete techniques with a penchant for the patterns and geometric structures in nature.

Uranus

My 'black tapestry' is finally done and off to the Riverside Art Museum for the exhibit starting February 14th and continuing until April 4th.

My tapestry here, Uranus, conveys the wonder of space through the recurrence of universal forms. The piece drapes and undulates through the use of varied black yarns echoing the darkness and the mysteries of space.

The design was inspired by a NASA photograph of the planet Uranus taken by Voyager 2 as well as the watercolor of the Black Widow Iris completed by Meria Sybylla Merian in 1700.

It's about five feet long and 30 inches wide. It hangs away from the way about 3 inches so it can easily drape and fold as I imagine space folded in the novel Dune.

It was hard to send this piece off to the museum. I have worked on it for so long and I wanted to enjoy it some more before saying goodbye.

Closer Look

I have been working on finishing my black tapestry called Uranus. Here's a closer look of the piece. This part is the exponential spiral - the nautilus shell along with a couple of orbits with the moons of Uranus spiralling outward in a Fibonacci pattern.

I've started to experiment with how to best photograph this piece. Two issues; first it 99% black and secondly it does not lay flat against the wall - it drapes. Thus, it looks different from different angles and in different lighting.

I signed up for Daryl Lancaster's seminar on Photographing Your Work at the Color Connects Fiber Conference in March. She wanted some photos to use for discussion...some photos of this piece might make for an interesting talk.

This piece will be hanging in the Riverside Art Museum as part of the Designing Weavers Exhibit which will be up in mid February through the beginning of April.

I guess [actually hope] I will have better photos of this piece after the conference.