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Face It

1/19/2016

 
Picture
Concertina Face ©Sarah C. Swett 2016
Faces have been making me crazy for decades
​but I can't seem to stop working with them.
Picture
Pizzicato ©Sarah C. Swett 2009
In the past, I've gone for extremes -- a portrait, or almost no features at all.
Picture
I Dunno ©Sarah C. Swett 2003
I am not, by nature, a portraitist so getting 
​ three people 'right' in one tapestry was definitely cause for celebration. 
Picture
The River Wyrd 48" x 36" ©Sarah C. Swett 2004
Easier, by far, to skip the features,
especially in small work where less is often more,
though viewers are sometimes confused by this.
"Where is her face?" they ask.
Picture
Casting Off Page 3 ©Sarah C. Swett 2009
"Sometimes," I reply, "a face distracts from the story."

At other times, emptyness is the point.
Picture
Warp Face ©Sarah C. Swett 2016
Picture
Dancing to the Sea 48" x 92" ©Sarah C. Swett 1999
This  enormous commission relied on specific faces and
 I spent months worrying if I would get them right.
​
On my next body of work, it was a delight 
 to skip the heads entirely
Picture
Apple 36" x 18" ©Sarah C. Swett 2001
As I write this and look at these images,
I realize that avoiding the trauma/ drama of getting faces 'right' 
was a large factor in my decision to stop accepting commissions.
People wanted to be in their tapestries and they wanted to look like themselves.
Too much pressure for me.
PictureAnywhere Else 9" x 9" ©Sarah C. Swett 2008
Indeed, it was a tremendous relief to focus on my own ideas
and explore ways in which body posture could portray the mood of the moment,

Picture
Rochelle's Back (detail) 24" x 18" ©Sarah C. Swett 2004
Studying comics  added a new dimension to my work
and I found that​ simplifying but not eliminating the features
allowed figures to be both general and specific.
Picture
Bottle of Red 9" x 9" ©Sarah C. Swett 2008
And recently, this business of using embroidery on my tapestries
has made faces positively compelling.

With each one, I'm full of curiosity, impatient to see who will show up.
Picture
How is it that this work can keep grabbing me? 
Picture
Hurrah 7" x 5" ©Sarah C. Swett 2013
  ps.  NEXT WEEK is my stop on the ATA Blog Tour, so I will post  a day later than usual, on Wednesday the 27th, as Wednesdays are blog tour days.
Be sure to stop by Elizabeth Buckley's tomorrow and see what she has to say


​
Valerie Musselman
1/21/2016 02:13:33 pm

Love this post!

Sarah Swett
1/22/2016 06:37:24 am

Thanks Valerie. I'll so glad.

Maurine Adrezin link
1/24/2016 02:45:50 pm

Your work is so amazing. I only wish that I could be even 100th as good as you.

Sarah
1/24/2016 03:55:21 pm

Hello Maurine, thank you for reading and for your kind words.
Weave on!

Catherine Young
1/27/2016 10:36:06 am

Really enjoyed this article on values. Extremely helpful.

Janet kovach
1/27/2016 12:35:53 pm

Ever since i first wrote to you when you showed up in Melanie Fallick's book i have been mesmerized by your talents. At that time you told me about the yarn wound around your wrists/hands.....in her photos.
This post was very helpful to my weaving and to my continued studies in weekly art classes....i have a large sign on my kitchen wall from Gary Godbee's class here in N J that reads "value always trumps color".......and thats what you have delineated here. Thank you so much....love how you say that value can make floors shiny or wet......
When are you going to start teaching on line courses like Rebecca does? Hers are super good and yours would be too...i saw your book of writing in tapestry at the Hunterdon Museum here in Nj last year.....truly awesome even in the glass case. From Janet Kovach


Comments are closed.
    Picture

    ​Sarah C Swett 
    tells stories
    with
    ​ and about

     hand spun yarn. 


    Picture
    Click for info on
    my four selvedge
    warping class
    with
    ​ Rebecca Mezoff  
    fringeless


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