Weaving van Gogh
Weaving van Gogh is an extensive body of work researched and developed over several years. It originated from reading of two scholarly texts, Van Gogh’s Progress: Utopia, Modernity, and Late-Nineteenth-Century Art by Carol Zemel (University of California Press, 1997) and Van Gogh and Gauguin by Debora Silverman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000). My work began in response to Silverman’s theory linking van Gogh’s work to weaving, but has since taken a turn in several directions. Initially, I considered the practice of weaving in relationship to painting and painting’s history. Later, I became intrigued by van Gogh’s field paintings, linking them to my own experience in the fields of the Canadian prairies and the formation of my own artistic identity. The scholarship that frames van Gogh as a socially engaged cultural worker, or a homemaker engaged in the interior decorating of his house in Arles, or a painter whose work was influenced by weaving, counters the popular notion of the artist as isolated tortured genius. For me, this genders his work differently, and creates a new point of entry to both his work and the history and practice of painting.
The drip paintings were made by dipping the handle of an artist’s paint brush into latex house paint and letting the paint fall off the end of the handle in horizontal and vertical threadlike lines, mimicking the warp and weft of weaving.
Vincent’s Bedroom in Arles (Sept 1889)
Latex on Canvas 73 x 92 cm 2007
Vincent’s Bedroom in Arles (Sept 1889)
detail
Weaving van Gogh: Bedroom in Arles
Van Gogh made three versions of Bedroom in Arles. My ‘weavings’ in paint of his three versions are identical in size to his.
The Yellow House
Latex on Canvas 72 x 91.5 cm 2007
Wheatfield near Auvers
Latex on Canvas 50 x 100 cm 2007
The Painter on his Way to Work
Latex on Canvas 19 x 17 1/4 inches 2005
The Painter on His Way to Work
detail
Vincent’s Bedroom in Arles (Sept 1889)
Latex on Canvas 56.5 x 74 cm 2005
Vincent’s Bedroom in Arles (Oct1888)
Latex on Canvas 72 x 90 cm 2005
Marguerite Gachet at the Piano
Latex on Canvas 100 x 50 cm 2007
Marguerite Gachet at the Piano
detail
Marguerite Gachet at the Piano
detail
Weaving Van Gogh Stride Gallery 2009
Marguerite Gachet at the Piano and Wheatfield near Auvers
Weaving Van Gogh
Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery, 2008
Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe (1889)
Gouache on paper, 14 x 20 inches, 2005, detail
Sheaves of Wheat (July 1890)
Gouache on paper, 14 x 20 inches, 2007, detail
Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers Arles (January 1889)
Gouache on paper, 2005, detail
Vincent’s Chair with his Pipe Arles (December 1888)
Gouache on paper, 2005, detail
Wheatfield With Crows (1890)
Gouache on paper, 14 x 20 inches, 2005, detail
Weaving van Gogh, Stride Gallery 2009
Stride Gallery
Weaving Van Gogh, Stride Gallery 2009
Stride Gallery
Weaving van Gogh, Stride Gallery 2009
Painter on His Way to Work – three versions: Latex on Canvas, Thread, Oil on page from book
Painter on his Way to Work, Latex on Canvas and Thread
Weaving Van Gogh, Stride Gallery 2009
Stride Gallery
Weaving Van Gogh, Stride Gallery 2009
Stride Gallery
Weaving van Gogh, Stride Gallery 2009
Stride Gallery
Weaving van Gogh, Stride Gallery 2009
Stride Gallery
Weaving van Gogh, Stride Gallery 2009
Weaving van Gogh, Stride Gallery 2009
Stride Gallery
Weaving van Gogh, Stride Gallery 2009
Six Fields, Gouache on Paper
Weaving van Gogh, Stride Gallery 2009
The Yellow House, oil on postcard; Bedroom in Arles, oil on postcard; The Yellow House, latex on canvas, detail
Weaving van Gogh, Stride Gallery 2009
Haystack Under a Rainy Sky, Thread, 5 x 9 inches, 2007
Self-portrait (1889)
Gouache on paper, 2005, detail
Weaving van Gogh, Stride Gallery 2009
Marguerite Gachet at the Piano, Thread, 14 x 4 inches, 2006
The Red Vineyard (1888)
Gouache on paper, 2008
Weaving van Gogh, Stride Gallery 2009
The Yellow House in Arles, Thread, 2006