Diane Savona

The National Museum of Brazil (34”square) Created after the horrible fire which destroyed the museum.

The Gods of Literacy (34”square) Many cultures have legends about the gods which gifted them with writing. The gods show here all link back to Anansi, the African storyteller.

Malleus Maleficarum (34”square)  In 1487, Heinrich Kramer published Malleus Maleficarum, which explained how to identify and question (torture) witches. Kramer’s arguments led to discrimination against women which still continues today. On this tapestry, Kramer, Pope Innocent 8th and alleged co-author Jacob Sprenger force witch masks onto the blanked-out faces of the women. Text from his book is sewn across the heavily embroidered women and their children. The enormous image of Kramer holds a half-hidden picture of a snarling wolf.

Marginalia (34”square) are drawings found on the margins of Medieval Illuminated manuscripts. These illustrations were often bizarre & bawdy. My tapestry is configured as an illuminated page, with text in the center and wide margins. Different aspects of marginalia, such as manicules and glosses, are included, with appropriate examples.

                                                          Fairy Tales Triptych

While designing Fairy Tales, I had a major wake-up call: how could I design something so absolutely Euro-centric when I have a half-Japanese grandchild? After my husband reminded me that Christ is most often imagined as a white man because Renaissance artists painted him that way, I had to make changes. My one Tapestry became a triptych.

Fairy Tales, Part 1 is based on traditional Eurocentric illustrations. The fictional characters are protected (by a white wall of words) from the wolves and witches on the darker edges. Everyone is connected by Mother Goose’s golden spindle. Historically, fairy tales were NOT for children – they were told by female weavers & spinners working together, also seen on the edges. 

(above) Fairy Tales, Part 1 detail.              (below) Fairy Tales, Part 2

Fairy Tales, Part 2 is fully integrated. Fairy tales from around the world provided images. Since I couldn’t figure out how to make African American dwarves, I designed Snow White and the Seven Jazz Musicians. Rapunzel in now a warrior based on Black Panther. Beauty faces a Japanese Beast. And Mother Goose (still connecting everyone with her spindle of golden thread) is now South American, with her baby on her back, not her lap. The weavers and spinners on the edges are also integrated.

(above) Fairy Tales, Part 2 detail         (below) Fairy Tales, Part 3

Fairy Tales, Part 3 (34”square) is based on mid-century American delusions. The imagined all-white innocents watch in fear as the colorful reality of ‘the other’ breaks through their wall of words. The central characters (the Morton Salt girl, a Shirley Temple doll) are fictional. They are make-believe. Lies. The bold characters on the outside are based on actual contemporary costumed figures. The Chinese New Year Dragon, Mexican Day of the Dead dancers, drummers from India….and witches from Germany and Russia. Not everyone we think of as ‘other’ is all that different. There are images of real children on the outside edge, happily playing with the ‘monsters’. And if you look closely, you’ll see that some of those white children in the center are looking outwards and coming to life. There’s also a very subtle theme of “Rock a bye Baby” running through the design. Babies in hammocks, in baskets, and – near the bottom – falling out of the center.

Apocolypse 2020

Death, War, Famine and Plague are all here waiting, with their dead horses in the background. Death is not the usual skeleton, but a mythical Swedish figure - if she uses her rake, you might survive, but if she uses her broom, you won’t escape death. War is outfitted in the armor of many centuries, while Famine is merely an old newspaper clipping, with locust flying above his head. Plague (with the face of Mary Malone, aka Typhoid Mary) is replicating herself in flight, ready to wrap you in her arms. The tile floor is studded with landmines.

Where We Live (in progress)

This untidy mashup of different mappa mundis will be the background for many small ceramic tiles, all imprinted with the word ‘home’ in various languages.