From Flax To Finish

McKenzie Everett College How To Student Voices Embroidery samplers are inextricably linked to an image of colonial America: farmhouses waved sheets of linen like flags of surrender, with fields of flax extending beyond, as far as the eye could see, in a place where girls as young as seven were set to the task of stitching out alphabets and Bible verses. This is the picture of the age of homespun.

Inuit Printmaking and the Concept of Purity

Hannah Gadbois College Student Voices This article explores the concept of purity in criticisms of Inuit prints by briefly introducing the history of printmaking in Cape Dorset and looking at 1970s Western art historians' expectations of Inuit art.

In Class / Motion Design

Ron Pearl College Faculty Teaching Instructor title: Ron Pearl, Critic Class title: Motion Design

Looking (Seeing)

June Shin College Student Voices Studio Notes

Egúngún

Mysteries Concealed in Magical Cloth Henry John Drewal Curator For Yorùbá-speaking peoples in West Africa, cloth is equated with their most precious possession, children.

American Drawings and Watercolors

Charles Burchfield Maureen C. O’Brien Curator Drawing Five works on paper in the RISD Museum’s collection follow the arc of Charles Burchfield’s career, introducing and reprising themes that reveal his desire for artistic unity with nature. Burchfield’s development in the early years of the twentieth century merged an appreciation for decorative surfaces, notably those of Asian and Near Eastern art, with an imagination that was fueled by his own his experiences.

Cloth as Metaphor in Egungun Costumes

Bolaji Campbell Curator Egungun costumes are usually created from a wide variety of carefully chosen fabrics ranging from exquisite samples of local handwoven aso ofi to exotic fabrics imported from around the globe. The choices represent the best that money can buy, and include velvet (aran), damask, silk, lace, and cotton, including ankara, or Africanized Dutch wax prints.

Understanding Art Through Thumbnail Sketching

Margaret Owen How To Studio Notes Drawing in a museum is a way of slowing down and experiencing artwork on a nonverbal level.