Marilyn and Andy

The Lion and Lucy Series

OK Harris Gallery Bagface

“O, you painters who seek to know color, study carpets and therein you
will find all knowledge.”

—Paul Gauguin

Tom Stocker: Paintings Inspired by Rugs and Textiles

ARTIST STATEMENT
Thomas Stocker


I came to my way of painting by looking closely at oriental rugs and textiles. Gauguin had written that one could learn much about color by studying their designs. But color can be elusive in a carpet. Hues and intensities seem to shift depending on the angle of light on the textured surface. This mutable nature of color in carpets had been a fascinating challenge and led me to experiment with interference paint in an attempt to capture that quality. I soon realized that shapes and figures as well as color could be made to seem transitory and ephemeral, especially behind a veil-like grid.

I construct my paintings in the same way as a weaver. “Knots” of color are applied to an underpainting that simulates warp and weft of the loom.

While many works are literal interpretations of existing carpets, other works synthesize traditional expressions with themes in contemporary culture and aesthetics.


Tom Stocker
May 2010
Carryback
Haverhill, NH