Brick Garden Rugs with Margaret

The work of artist Margaret Kerr combines her lifelong interests in landscape architecture and textile design. In gardens throughout East Hampton, New York, she creates what she calls brick rugs -- flat brick structures reminiscent in size, shape, and pattern of antique Persian and tribal Oriental rugs. Margaret first experimented with this art form in 1986 when she created a brick walkway for her family's medieval herb garden. Today, when developing a pattern for a new rug, she always explores a site's garden first.

Each of the rugs is based on a traditional structure, with borders and fringes simulated by positioning certain bricks to manipulate the light and shadow cast by the sun. The designs are first worked out with scraps of leftover brick at Margaret's home studio; once a rug takes shape, Margaret collaborates with a brick cutter to cut new bricks into the sizes and shapes called for by the pattern. The completed rug is transported to its site in a steel frame and installed with the help of a mason.

Special Thanks

Margaret Kerr. Margaret's work is commissioned through Arlene Bujese Gallery (516-324-2823).