Lenore Tawney (1902-2007)

"The truest thing in my life was my work. I wanted my life to be as true." --Lenore Tawney

When Lenore Tawney lent this work for the exhibition Language of Fiber at the Burchfield Art Center in 1984, she titled it Falling (Cloud). When we installed it, as per her directions, we listened to Zen-like music so that the experience of installing it became one's special appreciation of the artwork. Since then, The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum acquired it as Box of Falling Stars. The following is their statement about the work:

Box of Falling Stars represents the culmination of Lenore Tawney's journey to give shape to light. The work is an example of the artist's Clouds, a series of ethereal sculptures conceived in 1977. Tawney called Clouds "vertical weavings in volume" and "weavings without weaving" because they were not made on a loom, the device used to hold threads to weave into fabric. First, she drew a grid on the canvas support. At every intersection, she pulled a single linen thread through the canvas and secured it with a knot. She repeated this simple task thousands of times. The tedious process yields a cosmic effect. The fall of shimmering threads emulates the ways in which clouds (and stars) hold and diffract light. Box of Falling Stars heightens perception and mindfulness to the elements of life that often go unseen. (https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/box-falling-stars-33383)