Lia Cook

American, 1942

Born in Ventura, California, Lia Cook studied theater at San Francisco State University before receiving her B.A. and M.A. degrees (1965 and 1973 respectively) at the University of California, Berkeley. The recipient of five National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships and numerous other awards, since 1975 she has taught at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland.

Cook combines painting and weaving to create unique woven paintings in which textiles are both subject and object. She constructs her sumptuously colored and intricately patterned wall hangings from flat strips of painted abaca paper and dyed rayon. Since the late 1980s, she has deliberately employed pictorial imagery of draped fabric in her weavings, hoping to redress the current undervaluation of fabric in our culture and, through the sensory suggestion of touch, emphasize its direct connection with human experience.

Courtesy of Smithsonian American Art Museum