Zoar Cloth Samples c. 1937

Jerry Guinta's "Zoar Cloth Samples" is a study of woolen cloth, perhaps made as records. It makes me wonder, was he a weaver himself? I like the way the rough, fuzzy-edged squares float on the paper, and how he's got the weave down, but also lets the edges fray out. It is like he's feeling his way into each cloth, one a brown houndstooth, another a red and black tartan, and the last a gray check. I can imagine Guinta hunched over a table, squinting at the weave, trying to capture each thread. He must have been trying to figure out how the colours and textures work together. There's something so intimate and vulnerable about it. These samples make me think about how paintings—and painted marks—can capture a feeling, a fleeting thought, or a memory, which is really what art is all about.