Living This Creative Life

I have two favorite quotes. The first one is by Emile Zola, "If you asked me what I came into this world to do, I would tell you that I came to live out loud". I don't know who the second one is by, but it goes like this, "If you're not living on the edge then you might as well jump". Both of these sentiments sum up my personal philosophy of this experience we call life on earth. Enjoy!

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Art Every Day, Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Good Evening,

Despite fighting with my machine most of the afternoon, here is today's new piece. 

I'm always extra pleased when I can manipulate color to my will, which is exactly what took place here.

I began with this yummy, blue/brown color way, throwing it on a bright white ground that was set on top of a delicious blue green tinted batting.  I really just wanted to push the envelope with texture then bully the white and make it bend my way. 

So, I layered everything up and stitched down the blues with simple blue lines and the brown with some biggish stippling.  The nubby bits that run down just left of center and the brown bits along the edge of the cheesecloth are some of the strings/threads that come out of our washing machine during the dyeing process - it was the cluster of those fibers that made me choose the blue/brown color combo.  Anyway, they were stitched down with blue thread too.

It's what I did to the white that excites me.  Because a pure, crisp white like this one always tries to rise to the surface above most colors sometimes even pure hues, I quilted the hell out of it with a minute 1/8", straightish crosshatch grid and viola! back it goes into negative space - take that you overbearing white! I win.

At least until tomorrow,
Heather

2 comments:

Unknown said...

LOVE THIS PIECE....I SO ENJOY FOLLOWING YOU AND YOUR WORK. I AM TRYING TO SET UP A BLOG BUT I AM STRUGGLING FIGURING IT ALL OUT.

me said...

This is a lovely color way. My favorite part of this piece is the transparencies that are busting out all over the place!

Both the blue cheesecloth and the brown (is it linen?) have the wonderful see-through quality that allow the mixture of the colors behind them. And even the fringe on the lighter blue nearer the top layer allows us to see through to some lower layers, and the same with the brown fringe on the left side. It just keeps me looking and oohing and aahing.

The combination of stitching and different fibers and edges gives a whole lot of yummy texture in this piece. There is a nice offset balance and such a soft flow off towards the bottom corner.

The white is very interesting- while it doesn't seem dulled at all, it does indeed stay back. It's bright yet doesn't pop out. Quite an accomplishment. You DO win!!!