Artwork copyright Judith Poxson Fawkes. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Precipitation, Irrigation, Cultivation, 1997

Judith Poxson Fawkes
American (born 1941, died 2019)

Location: Horse Heaven Hills Middle School, Kennewick

About the Artwork

Precipitation, Irrigation, Cultivation is part of the late textile artist Judith Poxson Fawkes' pair of linen tapestries created for Horse Heaven Hills Middle School in Kennewick, Southeastern Washington. This artwork features layered and intersecting geometric elements in rich colors. Shapes and colors are also repeated in both tapestries. The main circular element can be interpreted as an irrigation circle or an environmental lifecycle. Seen together, the two compositions explore how environmental and agricultural cycles impact and define the rural Southeastern Washington landscape.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Kennewick School District.

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.