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Artwork copyright Violet Fields. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2022.
Artwork copyright Violet Fields. Photo courtesy of Western Washington University, 2025.
Third Call, 1990
Violet Fields
American (born 1951)
Location: Western Washington University, Bellingham
About the Artwork
Third Call is an abstract artwork created by artist Violet Fields. The backing fabric is pleated, and it is layered with areas of color in different materials. She notes, "Third Call is a piece whose quiet voice invited me to investigate beauty, to experience the consistent rhythm of its pleated surface and to harmonize with the cotton strapping which gently breaks the surface in its meandering flow. The triangular image whispers of the ancient mystery of the pyramid and reverberates an ancient, but familiar call."
This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Western Washington University.
About the Artist
Violet Fields is an artist and a poet who is African American. Her artworks are personal reflections. They are abstracted compositions of irregular geometric shapes and lines in pale, pastel, “sandstone colors.” She uses layers of colored pencils and pastels on top of paint. Her artworks have subtle textures such as folded and creased papers and canvases. She notes, “As a person of color in this country, I share with others a tradition, if not a natural affinity, for communication with higher sources… Art that is true can only be made by those who can ‘hear.’”Fields was born and raised in Berkeley, California. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute and her Master of Arts degree in studio art from California State University in Sacramento. She has taught art at the middle school level in Oakland, California, and is involved in arts advocacy. Fields has shown extensively in the Bay Area.
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