"Liz Alpert Fay: Ordinary/Extraordinary Women" WMQFA Exhibit

Liz Alpert Fay’s Ordinary/Extraordinary Women is the culmination of an astonishing twenty-year engagement to honor the women who have impacted her life and work through rug hooking. The collection comprises seventeen life-size and larger hooked portraits of Alpert Fay's daughter, friends, and influences; the tallest is eight feet tall. In 2004, Alpert Fay captured Ruth Spring, a 92-year-old naturalist, landscape painter, organic gardener, and “inspiration to all who knew her.” Encouraged, she embarked on a journey to hook sixteen more women, including one of herself.

Each portrait captures the women's essential qualities while incorporating Alpert Fay's keen understanding of materiality, design, color, and scale. Some rugs are more symbolic, while others picture intangible traits uncovered through interviews she conducted with each subject. Ruth Spring is warm and welcoming, with a basket of vegetables at her feet. Sherry Paisley is depicted in bold, dark lettering, with witticisms by the sitter. The portrayal of her daughter is based on a self-portrait Chelsea Fay drew in high school. Creating the rug allowed her to empathize with her daughter's experience, and she deliberately hand-dyed all the textiles to match the original palette.

If portraiture is a way of glimpsing the subject, then Ordinary/Extraordinary Women leaves an indelible impression. Alpert Fay chose to complete the final work, an image of herself incorporating wool from each woman, before exhibiting the series in its totality. The works in this exhibition linger long after one has experienced them.