Art Every Day, Friday, April 5, 2013
Good Afternoon,
Isn't it amazing what a little perspective can do? In our lives, in our art, perspective can help us differentiate between the things that are most important and those things that are supercilious as well as show us the support system we have built. No matter how well we have built the rest of our art/life, without a support system it can all fall apart.
With this piece I really wanted to work on depth perception while breaking all of the rules, so I began with a bright yellow dye painted batting as my base. I topped it with a lovely warm, mottled red orange/orange which I in turn topped with a cool green/blue green. On top of that I added the bold, highly contrasting stamped square in a square, squares and on top of those I added a dyed, crocheted flower and on top of those I placed a thick bone bead. So, including the backing fabric, there are areas of this piece that have seven layers.
My hope was to see how/if the colors could behave as expected when layered in the opposite direction; warm up to cool rather than cool up to warm and whether or not the layered background could support the bold, weighty foreground of the black/white squares and dimensional embellishments. I think the piece is a big ol' success and I love it's bold geometry and color.
I decided to quilt it all in yellow. I quilted the red orange/orange portion of the background in a swirly, flowery design. Whereas the green portion has straight line triangles and the yellow batting has wavy lines circling the perimeter. I think the boldness of the quilting in the red orange/orange helps it hold up the foreground better than it would have if I had quilted it with the same design in a matching thread color. The three color background needed it's own, subtle strength to do the job of holding up and presenting the bold combo of the on point black and white squares and all that they contain.
.....and, I think it's really pretty too.
Till tomorrow,
Heather
1 comment:
What really stands out to me first is how beautifully the yellow thread suits everything on the piece- even the bold black & white squares. Though it takes on a slightly different look on each color, it gives unity and dimension to the whole piece.
This really shows how to showcase neutrals! The layers behind the black & white are all strong and hold their own, but they are working together to support the focal point and it's smaller counterpoint.
It's also surprising to me how much impact that smaller counter point has. Relative to the piece, it's pretty small, but it really packs a lot of punch too, and draws my eye around and over.
This has wonderful texture, both visual and tactile. The quilting adds texture to the yellow, red orange, and even the white, and accentuates the texture in the green. I love the frayed edges you get from that green fabric!
The variations of color in the yellow, red orange, and green add depth and interest, and the flowers and bone beads really pop off of those black & white squares.
I love that this seems simple and geometric at first glance, but as soon as you see it closer, there is so much detail. Then you see that all the detail plays like an orchestra- each beautiful on it's own, but perfectly blending with all of the other parts to form the symphony.
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