POWER AND UNDERSTATEMENT

Deftly the weaver slides a weft through the warp then curtly beats it into place. Her body, confined to the loom, sits tall. Her back is straight. Her skirt buffers side-tucked legs. Only her hands move. Rhythmically they flick the multicolored yarns. And her mind, lulled by the well-learned rhythm, takes flight. It retraces weaving stories. It finds new wisdom in old legends. And yarn by yarn by yarn a rug is built.

First the Purist. Here supreme distillation is power. Each design element is exquisitely controlled, explicitly set:
The streaking stripe
The layered block
The terraced triangle
And beyond – the unfolding Southwest landscape.
From flat distant plains rise glowing mesas:
thrusting, eroding, receding, advancing.
Power and understatement in a limitless land.

So, there is much preparation before a weaver can even begin her work of weaving: before designs can evolve, alter, enlarge, diminish; before glowing yarns can join to create shapes that ebb and flow and celebrate their being. In a most realistic sense, many years, many frustrations, many sore muscles must pass before the weaver attains a state-of-ease. Only then can she effortlessly flow through changing pattern. Only then is she confident in her techniques, satisfied with creating something that will "outlive her grandchildren," and secure in here ability to provide for her family.

Resounding color contrasts the next – loud, dynamic, clear.
Some combinations are softly melded –
as emerald to blue-violet to black.
Other combinations expand, explode.
Too much gentleness could be boring; too many dynamics, chaotic.
But the space between – Beauty.

In some weaving cultures, only part of the textile can be seen (the part being woven). And that is usually positioned flat. All other parts are rolled from view and the weaver-designer has no visual reminder of what has already occurred. In other weaving cultures the loom is vertical and the weaver works from the back side amidst a snarl of loose ends. But the Navalo loom stands upright; the weaving is fully exposed and viewable; and the weaver can wield color and design with uncompromised clarity.

The Navajo weaver is also aided in the designing process by tradition – she undertakes a pattern that has been woven by others before her and one that she knows well. Sure of structure, she is free to play with nuance and innuendo. And the rug on here loom blooms with the kind of surity possible only through generations of refinement.

And sometimes in the playing, sometimes in a miraculous moment, old design elements pop to a new level of excitement. Colors vibrate and titillate and infuse the textile with an uncanny energy. When that happens, for that one moment, and for all moments, the textile speaks beyond weaver, beyond pattern, beyond media, beyond culture. It exists in what may simply be called a State-of-Grace. A moment of art.

Consider now a symphony; the weaver is conductor.
From the beginning there is a strong, underlying beat.
And a theme introduced: The Diamond.
It is isolated, purely stated.
It is elaborated, linearly stated.
It is varied, in block formation restated.
Left with but an echo in the stripes
And returned to en crescendo a coda of sound and shape.

In the late 19th century commercial Germantown yarns came to the Navajo reservation – a vast spectrum of colored yarns.
Some were even variegated!
Initial usage spoke to exploration:
Then with time – control and mastery.
This piece, however, speaks beyond – to exploiting the media to
its fullest potential,
All the while aligned with Self.

Navajo weaving speaks of Art as well as Craft. It speaks of a
It speaks of a culture steeped in tradition as well as of the creative
individual seeking innovation. Paradoxically it combines
patterns of understatement with patterns of power.
In a multifaceted tongue, it speaks in Beauty.

Bold and basic, black and white stripes form the background. The foreground zigs and zags in dynamic red and green: complementary colors with pent up energy.
Background. Foreground. Each complete in itself.

Now impose the two. Reversal!
In unexpected ways and at specific points outside the diamonds,
background breaks through foreground.
Unpredictability. instability. Tension.

As Always,
A relationship seeks to define its roles, find its balance.
"Which is the power?" it asks here.
"Both. Separately and together," the textile replies.
And wecan see,
Here is the power in the struggle and power in the union."