I wanted to make work that communicated something personal rather than intellectual, something that wouldn’t protect me from embarrassment or rejection—so I decided to start painting myself. Not how I looked, but how I felt about myself and my body.
I can’t wait to see the show.
The drone rug craze has maintained its drive. Public Radio International featured a story on the rugs, their background and growing popularity. There is a written story on PRI site, as well as the option hear the full radio interview. You can find a link to both below. Thank you to PRI for the interest!
http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-02-03/drones-are-everywhere-even-rugs
It seems the flood gates have opened as the press is continuing. It is such an honor to have garnered the interest of The Atlantic. They have shared the original COLORS story on their blog. You can find the link to The Atlantic post below.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/01/drones-are-appearing-on-afghan-rugs/385025/
Right on the heels of the Quartz and Colors Drone Rug stories came this piece in The Tribune (link below). Lots of great photos in this one, including other styles of rug as well. Thanks so much to The Tribune for the interest.
The drone rugs have been causing quite a stir in the media recently. COLORS Magazine issued a great piece at the end of last month, which was then re-ran by Quartz just a few days later. Links to the articles are below. Huge thanks to both publications for spreading the word.
http://www.colorsmagazine.com/blog/article/drones-on-rugs
http://qz.com/333733/afghan-carpet-weavers-are-putting-drones-on-their-rugs/
Warrug.com recently received a shipment of rugs from Peshawar, Pakistan including some new designs woven in Pakistan. The weavers are Afghan Turkmen who have settled permenantly in Pakistan after being refugees. This summer they produced three rugs featuring Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s or drones).
The blue rug below, #1566, features three different drones: Global Surveyors, Reapers, and Predators.
The second rug, below, #1580, features armed Predator drones.
Below is the third rug of the set, and it is particularly interesting because the drones are colored red, white and blue. I didn’t notice this important color choice until photoshopping (rather GiMP’ing) the border photo when I noticed the interlocking red, white, and blue border.
This just in! Drones in red, white and blue.
Vegetable dye on hand spun wool. White cotton foundation. Pakistan 2014. $400
In January 2014 we received a new shipment of rugs from Afghan Turkmen weavers in Pakistan. They are an unusual designs using all natural dyes. The group of rugs is very limited, for the weavers only produced seven examples. The rugs are dated 2013, the wool is all hand spun, and no synthetic dyes are used.
Rug #1531
Today’s New York Times Metropolitan section has a story by Tammy La Gorce about the show ‘Art Amongst War’ at The College of New Jersey’s Art Gallery. The show is curated by Deborah Hutton, and it features an array of art made by Afghan artists including 5 war rugs loaned by warrug.com, including the one in Times’ story. The show includes fine paintings, beautiful needlework, historical and contemporary video, installation art and some beautiful and haunting photographs.
“The anonymous weavers of six 1980s and 1990s-era “war rugs” — carpets whose motifs include land mines, guns and soldiers — may have had no formal training, learning from their relatives, but they have incorporated the grim realities of life in a war zone into their traditional craft.”
The New York Times printed a story today about my first ever petroglyph. by Corey Kilgannon. It is an honor to have my art in the New York Times, and I’m grateful for the exposure.
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