Artwork copyright Judith Poxson Fawkes. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2017.

Artwork copyright Judith Poxson Fawkes. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2017.

Weaver's Passage, 1998

Judith Poxson Fawkes
(American, born 1941, died 2019)

Location: Clark College, Vancouver

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Weaver's Passage is an elaborate hand-woven tapestry by the late textile artist Judith Poxson Fawkes. It is part of her series of tapestries of imagined spaces based on Italian Renaissance palaces of the 1200s that are occupied by groups of imaginary weavers.

The artwork is also commenting on the increasing rarity of tapestries and the shrinking community of weavers. Poxson Fawkes noted with envy that “Like linen thread, weavers and tapestries are growing increasingly rare. Weaver's Passage is a romantic recreation of a world where weavers worked together in sumptuous spaces on large series of tapestries financed by wealthy patrons – in contrast to my own solo pursuits to find buyers and commissioners of large tapestries.”

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Clark College.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Portland, Oregon-based textile artist Judith Poxson Fawkes (1941-2019) created elaborate, hand-woven tapestries that explore architectural and geometric forms, as well as the interplay of light and color.
Poxson Fawkes' tapestry artworks highlight the figurative possibilities of loom weaving. She designed her compositions using gridded drawings on graph paper. She often used a bird's eye viewpoint and played with the illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat surface by showing multiple sides and shadows of objects.
Poxson Fawkes earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Michigan State University in 1963 and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan in 1965. She moved to Portland, Oregon in 1972, with her husband, artist Tom Fawkes. She taught weaving at four colleges in the Portland area, including Lewis & Clark College. In 1984, she became a full-time studio artist. Her tapestry artworks have been exhibited all across the United States and are in many collections, including the American Crafts Museum in New York City.