Collar c. 1937

Marie Famularo made this painting of a collar with paint on paper, and the way she's built up the image is just so neat. It's like she's reverse engineering lace making. Looking closely, you can see the way the white paint sits on the surface, it's not quite flat. I wonder if she layered it up slowly, letting each layer dry before adding another, or if she loaded the brush up, real thick. The black ground is quite matte, it really makes that collar POP. There is something really wonderful about the directness and simplicity of the forms, like a botanical drawing, but for textiles. It makes me think about some of the work of Forrest Bess, someone else who combined obsessive mark making with simple forms to achieve something really special. But really, this piece doesn't need any outside references, it speaks perfectly for itself.