Sunday, March 22, 2009

the eye


Moving right along with design...

After settling on the overall blocking of the piece, I sewed together the top elements -- chocolate brown, azure and turquoise blues. I placed the paler blue in the center -- when I tried the turquoise there, the effect was quite heavy. On the right, the darker color acted like a frame.

The three quiltlets were finished. I decided to use a commercial print as the binding, the only one I would use in the entire piece.


The design hearkens to Frank Lloyd Wright as well as the art deco era, which I felt related to the rendering of Silvergirl's flowy locks. Contemporary fiber art is moving towards the use of fabrics designed by the artist (dyed, painted, silkscreened, stamped - the artist's own 'surface design'), so this does not follow that trend. [Remember, I had tried to dye my own background fabrics, and a resounding failure I was in getting the color I desired.]

I decided on a logical ordering of the elements. Since the inspiration for my piece was Silvergirl, in glass and fabric, I placed her front and center. The glass (to be on top of white cotton) looked better on the lighter blue, so there she went.

Her counterpart, the silk print, quilted on a double thickeness of batting, would sit to the right of the glass. I echoed this order with the other two portraits. This checkerboard design is continued in the montage at the bottom of the piece.

With all the colors laid out, I had to choose which montage would fit -- you can see them in the second photo in yesterday's post. The more saturated colors were too stark, so the softer version was "in" (to quote Heidi Klum).

Now, what to do with the open space on the top left? I wanted a face there, possibly a profile looking in to the images, to stop the eye on the left. However, I couldn't introduce another image -- no logic in that.

Of course the answer was to again repeat the Silvergirl image. Off to Kinko's I went, and I returned with several blow-ups of the original image, from 300% to 400%.


I placed these over the open chocolate brown space (today's initial photo) and chose the one that fit -- my goal was to have the image go "off the page" (artspeak) -- first, there was not room for the entire image, and more importantly, I thought this would be an effective way to stop the eye on the left side of the piece and keep it moving over the image -- first, the large Silvergirl, next the glass and textile versions of all three faces, and then I the eye would circle down to the montage.

But...how would I get this image on the fabric???

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