THE BOOK OF MISERY
– Seven Acts from the Book of Job
       
I often react spontaneously to colors, and one day, when I spotted an accidental grayish grouping of red, blue, and yellow among my 100+ spools, I immediately exclaimed: Book of Job!
 
Even as a child, I never liked to use the three “appealing-to-children” primary colors together, as I find that this combination leaves little to the imagination and lacks an inquisitive dimension. But the infusion of a contrasting color or a bit of black into the yarn dye made the threesome more interesting and a better fit for God’s complex playground. Not beautiful, but beauty is not a word we immediately associate with the story of this most suffering of men – after whom no child is named.

Tapestries two to eight follow the text without referring to the book’s chapters and verses. I decided not to add any individual tapestry notes; instead, the viewer can give herself to the flow of emotions. After completing these six, I added a first tapestry: a drape-like image. I felt that the series, with its theater references, needed the magical anticipation experienced in a theater setting when we stare at the curtain while waiting for the stage and scenography to be revealed and for the first act to begin. The tapestry also establishes the three primary colors in which the drama unfolds.
 
In the ninth and last tapestry, we are, as in the first tapestry, outside of the story – but now in nature. In the absence of gray, the sun embraces us, and we sense God’s universal grace. .


- 9 tapestries (series completed).
- Click on images for more information.