For the past two days, I have been showing some of the hooked rugs that Dale and Marny Cardin have been collecting since 1996. I think most people would agree with me that they have painstaking assembled a great grouping of beautiful pieces to use in their home. Although they love a variety of different mediums, they do have a particular passion for hooked rugs and always look for ways to raise awareness of the art form. While it’s fun to look at the different works and styles of the various artists represented in their collection, today’s post is about Marny’s artistic contribution to the collection.
While she occasionally does a commercial pattern like this beautiful rendition of Tiffany’s – Iris and Magnolias, hooked in a class with Helen Connelly Howe -
- her original compositions, like Valley of the Bears, are, in my opinion, the best examples of her unique sense of design, color and fun. (For non-Californians, this is an homage to the Los Ossos Valley [Spanish for The Bears] where the Spanish missionaries found enough “meat” to keep alive the starving colonists scattered throughout the state. It was great for the colonists, but a little hard on the bears!)
Marny’s work frequently takes a novel approach to familiar themes, creating little gems that sparkle with life, like this version of Noah’s ark.
Without any hints, I could have picked this rug out of a line up as an example of her work. Shot at the Cambria Rug Show, it was recently made for a local art exhibition in her area.
Marny, who keeps a detailed journal, often makes sketches and wonderful little water color paintings of the places she visits. These come in handy when she decides to hook a memory like Menemsha Harbor.
I have a personal interest in showing this collection since, in many ways, it is the collection on which I cut my artistic teeth. I met Marny at the first hooking event I attended. Other than the finished rug I brought with me, I had never seen another contemporary hooked rug. Before the day was over, I had an invitation to visit her home and spend as much time as I wanted looking at finished rugs. Although I did not have any books on the subject, or never even heard of RHM, I had an even better resource in the beautiful rugs that I could study and touch to my heart’s content. For example, I will never forget coming around the corner on that first visit and seeing this rug just laying on the floor! It was my first Cat’s Paw experience. Of course, I have gone on to put cat’s paws in a host of my own rug designs … and this rug of Marny’s is the reason why.
Whether it is an updated approach to a traditional design …
… or a contemporary design to cover the back of her chair, Marny continues to add to the collection the old fashioned way – one loop at a time.
I have an entirely different facet of Marny’s rugs to show tomorrow … it will be worth the wait!