Hooking the Human Form

After the Bath. Adapted by Gina Steen from a painting by Edgar Degas; hooked by Gina Steen, Hinesburg, Vermont, 2012.

Rug hooking can be strictly practical, marrying the need for floor, wall, and bed coverings with the desire or necessity for thrift, recycling, and utility. It can be therapeutic, the very act providing a soothing escape and satisfying pleasure. In addition, it can be done purely for the visual aesthetics of beauty or meaning. Hooking purely for aesthetics brings it into the realm of fine art. As the fine art of rug hooking evolves, we look to hook in styles (such as modern, abstract, impressionistic, etc.) and idioms (figure or body, landscape, still life, etc.) once thought of solely in the realm of painting . . .

This article is from the September/October 2014 issue. For more information on our issues, check out our issues page.