Texture
Markings #10 In Progress - stitched section ©2007
One of my goals for this year states:
I complete the 17 major pieces started prior to 2007 that are still unfinished: Structures #47, Structures #48, Structures #49, Structures #50, Structures #65, Markings #4, Markings #5, Markings #6, Markings #7, Markings #8, Markings #9, Markings #10, Markings #14, Portals #1, Portals #2, Circles #1, Circles #2.
When I revisted my goals mid year, which I failed to write about, I changed this to completing the 13 pieces in the Structures and Markings series. This week I’m very likely to complete this goal. Markings #10, the last to be completed, has about 14 more hours to go.
Completing this work mostly involved hours and hours of sewing parallel lines of stitching into the work to create the texture I love. To me my work isn’t completed just because the design is done and all the shapes have been sewn into a composition. It looks too flat, too untidy, less interesting. Plus it doesn’t store well as the fabric gets all wrinkled:
Markings #10 In Progress - Prior to Stitching ©2007
I have to added dense stitching or it just doesn’t feel right. After creating a fabric composition I layer it with cotton batting and a second layer of fabric for the back. I baste these 3 layers together and then spend hours adding stitched lines to the work to add texture.
This goal has been a good fit given the difficult year I’ve had, spending teh majority of my studio time in this meditative process of sewing lines back and forth. There are some artistic decisions to be made but much of this work is done on autopilot. A wonderful time to contemplate the events in my life and try to make sense of it all. Or listen to music or books on tape.
I had to take a quick break as I ran out of one of my green threads and I’m waiting for the local quilt store to open. It’s a rare occurrence for me to run out of thread given my rather detailed thread inventory system but Markings #10 is a large piece (probably 7 feet x 8 feet) and I forgot just how much thread is needed for such a beast.
Time to brave the first snow of the season an go get my thread and some more books on tape at the library.
Posted by Lisa in: Goals, Making Abstract Contemporary Textile Art
Tagged: books on tape, goals, Markings Series, stitching, texture, thread
paula said,
October 21, 2007 @ 4:27 pm
snow???????????????????????????
wow, I feel guilty, it was over 70 today and I didn’t even go out and enjoy it. stayed in the basement working on art. I’ll be thinking of you tomorrow when it is 70+ again :)
Diane Clancy said,
October 21, 2007 @ 6:16 pm
Hi Lisa,
I love hoe these look. That is how I work as an artist - it has to feel right. I do care what others think but I care much more how it feels inside ME. I think you have done great this year - especially considering!
Do you really have snow? Tomorrow is supposed to be 80 here …
~ Diane Clancy
http://www.dianeclancy.com/blog
Caroline said,
October 22, 2007 @ 4:07 am
It seems peculiar to see your quilts a little rumpled. In the pictures you take they are usually flat, aren’t they? Interesting to see them in a different light, as it were…
Natalya said,
October 22, 2007 @ 5:04 am
Markings #10 is absolutely gorgeous! I love love love those colors! I love that you took the picture of it looking like sand dunes so you can see the texture…
I wish we had snow too, tired of these heat waves…
cynthia said,
October 22, 2007 @ 9:36 am
Wasn’t the snow fun? I’m not ready for winter yet.
I too like seeing your art work in waves. It adds another dimension.
Lisa Call said,
October 22, 2007 @ 8:35 pm
Paula & Diana - yep - although tomorrow it will be back in the high 60s - unseasonably warm. I guess we just needed to remind everyone this is colorado.
Cynthia - Maybe it’ll snow during the world series - that could be fun.
Caroline - yes - I took this photo while the work was laying on my table next to my sewing machine - I see it this way all the time. It’s mostly flat when it hangs on the wall. Although not completely - I like that there is some body to the work, since it is textiles.
Natalya - thank you! I like the reference to sand dunes.
PaMdora said,
October 22, 2007 @ 9:13 pm
I love that top photo. Lately I’ve been thinking that the way they tell us to photo quilts for shows is all wrong, the front on view makes the work look flat. I’ve been experimenting with photoing details from an angle, because really I think of my quilts as a three-dimensional structure than a two-dimensional one. But I hadn’t thought of showing it waving like that — that probably works better on yours though.
Christine DeCamp said,
October 24, 2007 @ 5:55 pm
I love the top photo of this piece–it looks like the undulations and divisions of the land as you fly over it in a plane. Colors are wonderful. Snow picture was wonderful too. Thanks!
Christine
Lisa Call said,
October 24, 2007 @ 10:05 pm
I agree Pam - I think the straight on view loses some of the characteristics of the work. But flat against the wall is what they want so that’s what I do.
Thanks Christine!