Archive for March, 2009

Revision and the usefulness of critique

March 31, 2009

The last piece I finished recently is called Emergence II. It began as a smaller experiment in folding and stitching dyed green silk gauze. I loved the organic fluid lines and subtle color changes that this creates.

But I needed a larger context for that smaller piece and so mounted it onto a much larger deep purply- black silk and batting and worked to integrate the two parts into a cohesive whole. I felt it was only partly successful. In fact there was something that really bugged me about it but I gave up and declared it done. I finished it off with sleeve and label and even had it photographed and put on my website. Here’s what it looked like.

Emergence II (original)

Emergence II (original)

Then I brought it to my small Vermont critique group- Judy Dales, Marilyn Gillis and Christine Fries-Ureel-a very talented group! We’ve been meeting every month or two for many years at a centrally located Paneras.

They took one look at it and could see that it had some problems in composition and cohesiveness. They brilliantly came up with a few fairly simple tweaks that I hope will make a huge difference. I’ve been working on it this week. It was difficult at first to revisit a “finished” piece. When I get my sewing machine back ( please be tomorrow!) I’ll finish it and post the improved version.

Machineless

March 29, 2009

My Janome Professional choked for the first time last week and is now in for repair.

I’ve noticed this has had some unexpected positive consequences. When my machine is sitting there and I have a piece in progress on the design wall, my duty is clear! Keep going!

But this break has allowed (forced) me to step back and think about what direction do I want my art to go? Which path? I’ve had time to revisit some recent sketches that that develop a theme that has been percolating for awhile: the spaces between. The juices are flowing! A good sign.I find my art flows when there’s some underlying metaphor/idea thats feeding the imagery.

A Beginning

March 28, 2009

Well ,we’ll see how this goes! I’m hoping this blog will be a way for me to be more reflective about my  own creative process and to start dialogues with other art makers  and appreciators.


Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.