Minnesota Elm

Dimensions: 32" x 51"
Materials: #5–6-cut wool on burlap
Designed and hooked by Sandra Brown, Pittsburgh, Pennnsylvania, 1993.
Featured in: Celebration IV

Minnesota Elm is the third and final rug in a series of "heroic leaves" that Sandy originally conceived as a single artistic work. The first leaf, a maple, was hooked in 1990, followed in 1992 by a red oak.

Minnesota Elm is color-planned as an autumn leaf. The veins in the leaf are the underlying structure, and unblended patches of color flesh out the body. The splotches of color are meant to "capture all the detail we see in leaves when we look at them closely." From a distance, "The patches blend into color fields of yellow, green, and brown," and the eye is tricked into seeing a realistic elm leaf at the end of the growing season.
- Sandra Brown, Celebration Hall of Fame 2018
(Note: This rug description was taken as an excerpt from the published Celebration entry.)