Cayce Zavaglia creates her portraits in a novel variation on the time honored traditions of tapestry, using crewel embroidery wool in a method in which the direction of the threads are not blended into a uniform pattern, but given direction within the creation of the form — like brushstrokes, producing a much more “painterly” (“threaderly”?) surface.
Zavaglia was trained as a painter and in her statement indicates that she still thinks of herself as a painter, simply working with a different medium.
The images on her site, once you click through to the individual works, are supplemented with close up crops in which you can better see the directional and dimensional qualities of the threadwork.
In addition, some of the works are displayed as they look from the reverse of the surface, with a feeling of abstracted underlying form and a decidedly different direction and texture to the threads.
[Via High-Fructose by way of Dan van Bentheuysen: @vanbenth]
