You'll all be relieved to know that Beck is winging her way back from Japan as I type this and you will get a relief from my constantly banging on about Christmas. I spend a few hours last night catching up on some craft and design blog reading and I stumbled onto the work of New York artist Mark Barrow
I
thought this woven work was so beautiful when I first saw it. Like Amish quilts, Klee paintings, modernist architecture - three of my favourite things
But on further investigation I discovered that the textiles are woven by his wife Sarah Parke and then he paints acrylic patterns over the top. For some reason this kind of irked me. The crafter in me felt that this was cheating. I've spent the last 24 hours processing my thoughts. I guess because he's putting it in a fine art context he can 'get away' with it. And they are still beautiful objects- in photos anyway
I came to the conclusion that I would have been happier if they'd listed the two 'makers' together - an equal collaboration - painter and weaver, husband and wife, artist and crafter.
So what do you think of the work of Mark Barrow and Sarah Parke?
RAMONA
1 comment:
i think it would irk me too. and i bet they're playing on the 'ooh, look, a boy crafter' idea. or maybe it's the same ol' same ol' boy-artist schtick.
either way, i love the work of mark barrow and sarah parke - they make beautiful work.
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