Uploaded December 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Melissa Cody’s weavings are vibrant, bold, and dynamic. They perform a dance between the ancestral and the contemporary, echoing traditional weaving techniques and motifs, particularly those associated with the Diné (Navajo) people. Cody comes from a family of weavers and draws on techniques learned from her grandmother and mother, both respected weavers in their communities. The artist weaves on a vertical Diné loom with a guiding compositional structure while also making design decisions as she works. Her weavings take inspiration in part from the “Germantown style,” developed by nineteenth-century weavers who embraced industrially dyed yarns manufactured in Germantown, Pennsylvania. At the same time the artist introduces aspects unfamiliar to Diné practice, including digital graphics reminiscent of the pixelated early Nintendo video games and other cultural phenomena of the 1980s.
Melissa Cody’s weavings are vibrant, bold, and dynamic. They perform a dance between the ancestral and the contemporary, echoing traditional weaving techniques and motifs, particularly those associated with the Diné (Navajo) people. Cody comes from a family of weavers and draws on techniques learned from her grandmother and mother, both respected weavers in their communities. The artist weaves on a vertical Diné loom with a guiding compositional structure while also making design decisions as she works. Her weavings take inspiration in part from the “Germantown style,” developed by nineteenth-century weavers who embraced industrially dyed yarns manufactured in Germantown, Pennsylvania. At the same time the artist introduces aspects unfamiliar to Diné practice, including digital graphics reminiscent of the pixelated early Nintendo video games and other cultural phenomena of the 1980s.
