Born and raised in Chicago, Morrie’s formative years were spent studying painting at the Chicago Art Institute. The intervening years were spent working out of the mainstream, pursuing his own aesthetic investigations, while designing fabrics for a living. The move to the coast of Maine in 1978, with an old loom found in New Hampshire, brought a change of life style, an attempt to live in balance with nature, a renewal. With hands, heart and head, the designing and weaving of tapestries became a natural means of personal expression.

The weavings were done on a vertical tapestry loom. The weft was beaten down by hand with a hardwood fork and with his fingers, when using small butterfly hanks of yarn. This procedure was time consuming, requiring concentration and patience, but when taken from the loom, the piece is as tight as a drum and the total, each single pick, is fully known. These tapestries rely on design, composition, proportion, color and the skill of a master craftsman. Color is king!

His fascination with this art form, this ancient universal medium, continued unabated for 40 years. Morrie’s work is to be experienced like a painting or any work of art, for its own visual power and force of statement.

Maine tapestry artist, Morris David Dorenfeld

Photo: John McIlwaine