Shaker Rug Material c. 1936

Elizabeth Moutal made this ‘Shaker Rug Material’ using watercolor, graphite, and colored pencil on paper. The design suggests a weave of vertical stripes in a muted palette of blues, greens, browns and pinks. What’s fascinating here is the translation of a textile into a drawn image. The Shakers were renowned for their austere, functional designs. Moutal's drawing captures the material essence of a Shaker rug and reduces it to its graphic components. She is documenting the rug's aesthetic and construction. The meticulous rendering of the weave, through the repetitive application of colored pencil and graphite, mirrors the labor-intensive process of weaving itself. This brings us to the wider social context of craft and labor. Moutal is not just depicting a rug. She is highlighting the value of hand-making in an increasingly industrialized world. It’s a quiet but powerful statement about the beauty and significance of craft, challenging the traditional art world's separation of "high" art and "low" craft.