#241, If the Stars Didn't Shine on the Water

More Information

This work came early in Lessman-Moss’s use of digital technology. Just before she took up digital methods, she had been trying to capture weaving’s central blending of two layers (warp and weft) in painting on thin paper, focusing on colors, shapes, and the possibility of layers interacting with one another in constructive or disruptive fashions. By this point, she had also started working with the underlying matrix of overlapping circles that forms the basis of all her work. Amid these pursuits, she took a computer class in 1995, which allowed her to employ digital design to anticipate what would happen on the loom. This set up much of the rest of her career. In #241 and a group of similar works from the same period, Lessman-Moss experimented with a painted warp—she would first put the warp on the loom, secure it with tack or gauze, more it onto the wall, paint directly on it, and then move it back to the loom for weaving. The dark lines in this work were thus painted early in the process of its creation to provide a series of “ripples” throughout the work. The artist is consistently interested in the human tendency to identify and create patterns, how patterns can be both regular and organic, and how patterns interact with one another when layered. This particular work was also meant to be more “moist” and subtle with less value contrast. As a result, the colors seem to blend and change—one might be surprised to find that the black throughout the work is uniformly consistent in tone, as it can be perceived to change as it moves through different contexts. Finally, the small rectangular metal sections are meant to suggest a relationship between the finite and the infinite, radiating from the center of the work and providing punctuation so that one can find a bearing within a pattern that could extend indefinitely.