Seven Days: Vermont's Independent Voice

Elinor Steele

Elinor Steele’s handwoven tapestries may appear tidy and tightly composed on the surface, but a sense of aggression lurks beneath. In her Reconstruction series, currently at Jackson Gallery at Town Hall Theater in Middlebury, she deconstructs images until they’re unrecognizable, then reorganizes the pieces as if she were “rebuilding the fragments left by an act of violence.” Steele has been weaving on a high-warp loom, combining individual wool threads to achieve just the right colors, for more than 30 years. “The Art of Tapestry” is up through February 26. Pictured: “Reconstruction V.”