Storm Rug
Diné (Navajo)
Storm Pattern Rug
Handspun wool with analine dyes
c. 1940-1950
72 x 52
Purchase, Francis Woolsey and Helen Silkman Bronson
Class of 1924 fund
1992.12
In Diné history, Spider Woman taught the people to weave (Reichard 1981). This skill has always been a viable form of commerce. The Diné first wove blankets to trade with other indigenous nations, such as the Lakota, and then ingeniously adapted their designs to appeal to an increasingly infatuated audience of non-Native collectors, tourists, traders and art enthusiasts (McCloskey 2008).
The maker of this handwoven Diné rug connects with viewers through the bold geometry of the storm pattern portrayed in Churro wool; the stylized lightning bolts, rainbows and waterbugs that make up the design are set sharply in black, white, red and tan upon a grey background (Winters 2010). Among the Diné, weaving is often considered a way to express proper feminine behavior and to celebrate the female intellect. Weaver Barbara Jean Teller Orneles compares weaving to motherhood. “When you first set up your loom it is like giving birth to your child,” she says. “Watch it grow, find a good home for it” (Quoted in McClosky 2008, 227).
Like motherhood, weaving is a skill both reimagined and preserved from one generation to the next. Within Diné culture, weaving traditionally functions as a form of conversation within the community and beyond its borders. Through the contemplative practice of weaving, weavers both engage in dialogue with their foremothers and their current community, as well as individualizing the weaving process through innovation and design (Bonar 1996, 17). It is from this combination of creative transformation and cultural tradition that the unknown storm pattern weaver engages us in dialogue.
Adeleene Rockwell