The Steamboat Pilot & Today

Haynes Robinson considers himself a savant of rug making. He can visualize a carpet from beginning to end. He can imagine every knot. He can conceptualize the dyes that should be used. From there, he needs only to communicate his ideas to a weaver and watch it become reality.

Robinson will be in Steamboat Springs tonight sharing the creative process behind his latest rug project, the Sahar Series.

The idea came as Robinson pondered how many contemporary artists have been influenced by tribal art.

"I heard that Rothko might have been inspired by Gabbeh carpets, which are basically just color fields," he said. "The idea was if tribal art influenced modern art, wouldn't it be interesting to close the circle and have modern art influence tribal weavers."

The carpets that came out of the Sahar project are painted in a way that makes it hard not to think of Rothko.

The Sahar rugs are created by Qashaq'i women who live in remote southern Iran.

"They are one of the only weavers in the world who weave by eye," Robinson said. "We don't need to give them graphs. They don't count knots."

Robinson gives them a rough sketch of a rug design with color suggestions. The rest is up to the creative mind of the weaver.

"I don't give them a highly detailed sketch," he said. "I want the weavers to impact the work. If you give them too much visual information, they just copy what they see. This way, the weaver has to interpret. She has to use more of herself."

This process accounts for the variation from one rug to the next, even if the basic layout design is the same. The weaver's name is written on the back of each rug, like an artist signing a painting.

"I studied psychology and as I look at a carpet, I believe you can get a little taste of the person that made it," Robinson said. "I'm always surprised at each piece, and that's what I enjoy and like to share with people."

Robinson will be giving a slideshow presentation of the Sahar project tonight, but he also will be discussing the political and social climate of Iran from his own experience as a businessman.

"Iran is much more moderate than the American perception," Robinson said. "There is a great deal of disappointment in the way the revolution turned out."

Much of the population is younger than 30, he said. "There is a huge wealth of young people there, and with satellite television, they are hooked into Western culture."