CYNTHIA SCHIRA
Gallery
Stegano’s Place, Jacquard woven cotton 39”x50”
I have become fascinated by the visual notational methods or systems specific to different professions . The staff of written music; the graph markings of the weaver; the layout of an architect; the equations of a mathematician – all are meaningful to the practitioners within the particular field but often are an indecipherable code to others. I am also intrigued by how these marks change and evolve over time, so although their usage remains the same, their appearance historically differs. In combining and juxtaposing parts of these various systems, new patterns and forms develop provoking in my mind new allusions to follow. The complexity of the graphic relationships, the allusions along with the morphing of the marks by their translation into woven structures continue to involve me.– Cynthia Schira
Cynthia Schira has been exhibiting internationally for over 40 years. Her work is represented in major public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art and the Museum Bellerive in Zurich. She is the recipient of two NEA grants, a Tiffany Grant and an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design. In 2000 she was awarded a Gold Medal from the College of Fellows of the American Craft Council.