A group of internet artists from all over the place who have decided to give each other a challenge every few weeks, on a theme chosen by each in turn. We have different ideas and styles, but share a love of textiles, and want to have some fun.


Sunday 4 December 2011

THE STATE WE'RE IN


Better late than never with the added problem that the piece, like topsy, grew and grew.
The idea came from various sources as outlined in a previous post as well as being a continuation of a current theme.
My overall idea, was, and still is, the view through a wealthy person's window as exemplified by the lively coloured blocks whose random nature refers to the way bankers have gambled with our future. The view through has a background which is a laminated composite of part of a gravestone and poppies together with a poppy petal. I did this because Armistice Day this year was a once in a century 11,11,11,11 and I wanted to reference this with drawn crosses. The figures were used for further works and I liked them so they were put in here too. They represent my feelings about this summer's riots in our cities and this pervades the whole work. It is cheating a bit because it is really outside/outside but there is artistic licence. Anyway, a wealthy individual mght well have these 'wallpaper' blocks on his/her wall.
It is a long time since I used bought fabrics in a work to any degree but time constraints and a previous competition requirement brought me back to them. I thoroughly enjoyed choosing the myriad of colours and tones required for the random blocks but, as usual, struggled to find enough even from my enormous collection. I got addicted to the process of making these.
The colouring of the figures was experimental as I wanted to try out various watersoluble media on fabric which I worked on at our local art club practical evening. The group are nearly all conventional painters and were both bewildered and intrigued by what I was doing.
All in all, I am pleased with this although I did have my doubts at times. It still needs embellishing, quilting and finishing but I need to think about this.
May I suggest that members state the size of their work as this is quite important to our appreciation and visualising of it? Otherwise, we have no reference point. This piece is about 40in. wide by 20in. high. I did say it grew and grew. A full view and a close-up are shown below.

2 comments:

Julie said...

I enjoyed reading your explanation of the inspirations behind this piece Jenny and I do like the staggered edge and the fabrics you've used. I would have liked to have had a closer look but the images wouldn't enlarge. I have seen from other posts that we have Lightbox or whatever it's called switched on and wonder if it could be switched off so that images can be clicked and enlarged.

So far I have been working roughly to an A3 size as this was mentioned at the beginning as being a possible format and it suits me not to work too large, unless the piece won't work any other way. I will endeavour to include the dimensions when posting.

Jenny said...

Thanks for your comments, Julie. I would have liked to enlarge them too but as a relative beginner at blogging, I don't know how. I believe you can do it through Picasa and I see other members have their photos in groups which can be enlarged. Can anyone else enlighten me?

NB. I did include a close up which I thought might help.