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!

Monday, July 8, 2013


Art Every Day, Monday, July 8, 2013,

Good Afternoon,
Here is today's new piece.  I was jonesing to play with direct complements and thought I use one of my least favorite pairs, blue and orange. 
I laid several different blues down on some orange dye painted batting and quilted the hell out of them with concentric, linked squares and rectangles.  Then I added the long strips of orange and the three squares.  I stitched them along their edges then stitched rows of circles inside each strip and one circle inside each of the squares.
I like the piece well enough.  It's got good depth and a nice flow of line but it lacks some vital energy.  I wish that I had made all of the orange bits just a little larger so that they were bossing about the blue rather than just sitting there on it.
Well, I'm off to get new license plates for the car then on to Golden to teach advanced design.
Till tomorrow,
Heather

1 comment:

me said...

Hmm, you live in Denver and this is your least favorite combo? Or is it BECAUSE you live in Denver this is your least favorite combo? lol

This is a tough one for me, based on what you said. You said you would have preferred the orange to be prevalent, and I tend to look for balance, which I definitely think you achieved.

When I am not sure on that score, I look close up and further back to see if one color stands out more than the other, and I really don't see that here. I think using the orange batting brings out the balance between the two.

The only thing that keeps throwing me off is the dark blue. It seems to sit so much further back and is in the top left corner, it is the first place my eye goes. I am not sure if it is because of its color or its placement that my eye goes there first. Maybe both.

I turned it around a few times and it seems less dark to me- if that is possible- when I put that dark blue in the bottom left corner. Somehow the lighter blue in the middle seems less light in that position too and the quilting shows more too, so the piece feels more cohesive overall.

I like the repeated use of the circles in all of the rectangles and squares, especially against the linear quilting in the background. It provides some softness and sort of pops out the orange elements some more.

I like this color combination, but that is because since taking the color class, there aren't any colors or combinations I DON'T like.

I find I have much more appreciation for color in general than I ever did before, and that would have been worth the price of the class right there! The fact that I keep learning about color, long after the class is over is a bonus I didn't even count on :)