Purchased with funds from the William R. Roberson Jr. and Frances M. Roberson Endowed Fund for North Carolina Art
Artist Andrea Donnelly was raised in North Carolina. She creates large, woven textile works that feature human figures. Her work explores the contrast between the precision of weaving by hand and the unpredictable qualities of ink. Donnelly uses photography to create the human figures in her work. She uses cloth to create a mirror image of the figure through a process of “dyeing, weaving, unweaving, and reweaving.”
Through passage of time and rhythm of repetition, the actions of weaving are captured and layered like memory in the buildup of thread upon thread.
Andrea Donnelly
To create Body Blot #1, Donnelly photographed herself in different poses. She says her interest in the inkblot effect “is not in perfect symmetry.” She is interested in the beauty of the design’s imperfections. Her designs represent the experience of being an imperfect human as well as her interest in psychology. The inkblot designs in Donnelly’s work look similar to Rorschach inkblot tests. These tests were originally used to diagnose psychological disorders.
tags: contemporary, artist’s process
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