Gestalt and all that

                                                                                              "for Eileen"

We all remember looking at the following image, and alternatively seeing a vase, and two faces:

When I went back to school to study art, I learned that this was a principle of Gestalt perception -- our brains automatically superimpose images on to otherwise-amorphous forms.

So when Eileen Alber, owner of Quilters' Studio, gave the Extreme Quilters minigroup a challenge to use this [bizarre] piece of plastic in an art quilt, I photographed it, gave it some color, and immediately spied a nose and some hair in the mix:

 

When printed on cotton sateen, the color backed off a bit. Next decision: how do I bring forth my Gestalt-inspired image? To suggest the the face, I used black stitching. Clear monofilament thread marks the flow of the hair (see the entire piece at the beginning of this post):

All the challenge pieces will be on view at the Quilters' Studio in Newbury Park (California!) beginning June 16 as part of the Quilters' Run.