Donna Loraine Contractor

Statement

Color is a source of constant joy for me and I delight in the full range of its use - bold and surprising color combinations and the subtle gradations of a single color. The colors and the unique quality of light in the Southwest, and the diverse forms of its land and sky scapes, make up a rich and diverse palette.I love the materials used in the weavings,from the strong smooth cotton warp to the luster of hand-dyed wools and the sparkle of silks, I continue to be enraptured with the feel and look of textiles.The very act of weaving has become metaphor – the web of life, weaving a tale - and is entwined with my choice of imagery and the use of the window set within a frame, a view to another place, another reality as a motif in my work. I try to achieve a blend of the representational and the abstract and to keep a geometrical contemporary feel in the frames.

Artworks

The graphic appeal of the Koch snowflake was irresistible. Such a simple function made more so by creating it in a linear way.The bending each straight line successively : this is the reiterated function , which is constrained by the limits of the grid supplied by the loom.While the Koch Snowflake Fractal is usually represented in a circular format I have chosen to represent it linearly .

This is one of the many Pythagorean proofs out there. The Landscape triangle is the ABC triangle. It's graphic appeal is hard to resist. The application of this proof to a unit square and the derivation of irrational numbers and the root rectangles that are so much a part of design in art and nature continue to fascinate me and inspire my designs.

Another Pythagorean proof, ( a2+b2=c2) where the landscape triangle is a special case triangle, not 90 degrees by itself but made up of two right angled triangles. The basic triangle pattern changes remarkably through different colorways. In this piece I experimented with creating the illusion of transparency.I am hoping to depict more of the many Pythagorean Proofs in my work in the future.