Karen Kamenetzky Fiber Art

I almost always start the process of creating a piece with sketches. Sometimes I have an image or a certain composition design or a texture that I doodle around with till something emerges that I’m excited by. Here’s a recent page in my sketchbook:

sketchbook page

Pretty rough! But both of these are the basis for some pieces I’m working on. The top part of the one on the left led to the two squarish “The Spaces Between” pieces I posted last week. The full drawing on the left will be a larger rectangular piece.

A version of drawing on the right is on my  design wall now and may be what I jump into this morning.

I fall in love with a certain line or curve or shape of negative space and feel psyched to work with it.

The few times I’ve tried to skip the sketch step- I get lost easily, lose my way and it begins to feel forced and frustrating.

I’m on a roll. It’s interesting working on several smaller pieces at once. This is new for me. It feels satisfying to work small and try different ideas out quickly. Here’s the newest completed one.

The Spaces Between II

Instead of going with the black painted stretched canvas, I had black foam core cut to size and  stitched this and the last piece on to mount them. I like the look and they can be hung as is or framed.

I’m back from a trip to help my mom get her house ready to sell and my sewing machine is healed. I always find the first steps back into art are a bit forced. I have to make myself get started.

So I made some changes to Emergence II- minor but I feel it makes a big difference in the line and flow of the composition. These were from the suggestions made by my critique group. I more securely sewed down the green center. And I added several rose colored  circular shapes to extend a curved line and integrate the center and the outer area.

Emergence II (revised)

I’m much happier with this piece now.