Artwork > Rug II

This painting grows out of a rug motif that I was surrounded by throughout my childhood. It is one of the most common motifs found in Turkmen tribal rugs, where it is traditionally repeated in a fixed, highly structured arrangement across the field of the rug. Here, I have removed the motif from that ordered system and dispersed it across the surface, breaking its regular repetition and allowing new relationships to emerge. Salvaged rug fibers and fragments are incorporated into the composition, bringing the material presence of the rug into the painting itself. As the forms shift in color, scale, and density, they move between ornament and abstraction while retaining a connection to their origin.