{"id":4081,"date":"2026-01-21T04:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=4081"},"modified":"2026-01-21T04:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T11:30:00","slug":"pam-connolly-tenderly-weaves-family-snapshots-on-vintage-potholder-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=4081","title":{"rendered":"Pam Connolly Tenderly Weaves Family Snapshots on Vintage Potholder Looms"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pam<\/p>\n

Across frameworks devised from vintage potholder looms, Hudson Valley-based artist Pam Connolly<\/a> weaves personal family narratives and explores notions of home. \u201cI grew up in the 1960s in a typical, post-war suburban neighborhood in New Jersey,\u201d she says. \u201cMy parents owned a furniture store that was at the center of our family\u2019s universe\u2014everything revolved around it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a child, Connolly roamed the store\u2019s maze of showrooms, immersing herself in the patterns and objects. These curated, aspirational spaces instilled a fascination with make-believe and our surroundings that has accompanied her in her lens-based career for the past three decades.<\/p>\n

\"A
\u201cDad and Rembrandt\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Columbus Drive<\/em>, a series of woven family snapshots, channels Connolly\u2019s interest in the relationship between the imaginary and the real, especially through the theme of domestic spaces and family stories. Her work has previously included photographs of tin dollhouses and family portraits that explore the idealized American dream and childhood memories.<\/p>\n

In the Columbus Drive <\/em>pieces, Connolly reproduces family snapshots on canvas, which she then cuts into quarter-inch strips and weaves with colored fiber on the metal potholder looms. These vintage objects harken back to the early- to mid-20th-century, when they were conceived as a way for sock manufacturers<\/a> to not only use but also market their textile scraps. Especially during the Depression era and throughout the midcentury, the tiny kits became incredibly popular.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this body of work, I unravel the unspoken details of childhood and re-tell the story from a new vantage point,\u201d Connolly says. \u201cBy creating patterns with colored thread and maneuvering\u00a0the canvas under and over\u2026a new image and vision is slowly revealed.\u201d Through cutting up and reassembling these immanently personal images, the artist meditates on the era of the 1960s as much as her own recollections and family history.<\/p>\n

See more of the artist\u2019s work on Instagram<\/a>, where you can also explore her project called Landau Gallery<\/a>, a 1:12-scale contemporary art space.<\/p>\n

\"A
\u201cLauren in My Room\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
\u201cPam and Lovee\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
\u201cLois, Take the Picture!\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
\u201cPam and Flower Girl\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
\u201cLois\u2019 Bat Mitzvah\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
\u201cMom and Yellow Lamp\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"An<\/figure>\n

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member<\/a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Pam Connolly Tenderly Weaves Family Snapshots on Vintage Potholder Looms<\/a> appeared first on Colossal<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Across frameworks devised from vintage potholder looms, Hudson Valley-based artist Pam Connolly weaves personal family narratives and explores notions of home. \u201cI grew up in the 1960s in a typical,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4081\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}