Striped Stair Carpet 1935 - 1942

Arthur G. Merkley’s Striped Stair Carpet, made without a known date, shows a commitment to colour and texture. I can just picture Merkley, shuttle in hand, carefully building up these horizontal bands of colour, each one a slightly different shade of earthy, muted tones. It's like he's mapping out a landscape, or maybe a feeling, stripe by stripe. There's something so satisfying about the way the colours bump up against each other – pinks next to browns, reds next to greys, and how those tiny, tooth-like forms create a subtle rhythm across the surface. I love how the hand-made quality of this carpet shines through. You can almost feel the give and take of the weaving process, the way the artist adjusted and adapted as they went along. It reminds me that making art is an ongoing conversation, a back-and-forth between the artist, the materials, and the world around them.