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Hicks end Text #21

A
When the artist started to work on the Moroccan series of prayer rugs she conceived of them as rugs for the wall, floor, or ceiling. The material was to be all wool; the techniques all knots, scissor carved to various levels; the motifs/ or themes - all architectural elements: [[?]] doors, columns, entrances, facades, friezes, tunnels, arcades, arches, portals; from minaret and mosque, French and [[crossed-out]] Muselman [[/crossed-out]] Muslim. These self-imposed conditions she entered in notebooks, sometimes with words, sometimes with sketched and swatches. [[crossed-out]] This is a page from her notebook showing the colors she selected, using no more than three colors on a single piece. [[/crossed-out]] The rectangular format and the large solid areas of color bring to mind the magnificence of Mark Rothko's paintings of the fifties, but with notable differences. Sheila's unshaded color areas are boldly, if softly, defined. Sometimes deep within a carved valley a thin outline of contrasting color separates major areas. The extreme density of the knotted pile is exploited by the several depths and thickness in a single composition. This play of color and depth is intensified when a single rug is composed as a diptych and triptych.