Samantha Bittman

Samantha Bittman's practice often begins on the floor loom, where she weaves a patterned textile with hand-dyed or commercial yarns. Then, stretching the textile over stretcher bars, she creates a canvas-like rectangular surface to respond to with paint. Matching her paints to her yarn colors, Bittman subtly combines her two mediums and crafts stunning optical illusions for the viewer. Over the course of the past few months during the pandemic, Bittman reflected on her ability to spend more time on an individual textile painting, and in some instances, to make smaller and more detailed marks. She also described an overall freer methodology to her patterned rectangle, exploring tapestry weaving and other ways of breaking up grid-like precedents.