Shadow Drawing

Above is a photograph, taken by my late husband, of evening light through our front window.  I've also been fascinated by the different shapes cast onto my bedroom curtains at night shining through my neighbour's plum-tree.  At first I agonised over what to do - have always been fascinated by light through trees but wanted to do something different.  As time grew closer to the deadline I came across the photograph which reminded me of the shadow-drawings done by a former art teacher.

I have a method for approaching artwork - it begins with a long period of reflection and observation.  Sometimes but not always it will involve drawings, painting and so on.  In this case not.  The period of reflection allowed me to see that the shadows on my bedroom window were paler in some places than others, that in places shapes were crisp and elsewhere blurred, for example.  (I think this is my equivalent of the processes used by Oriental artists traditionally - according at any rate to a book I read as a teenager - of spending a whole morning looking at something and then drawing it in a single stroke).

Anyway, here it is.  I found a nice piece of silk charmeuse I'd dyed, plus hand-dyed silk organzas and polyester voile, together with back mistyfuse-type stuff, ironed the mistyfuse stuff onto the organzas, then cut and overlapped the shapes onto the background fairly freely, using different colours and fabrics to give different depths of shadows (Mags, you are NOT to try to identify any real botanical items - this is an abstraction of the sorts of shapes you get in gardens (well that's my story and I'm sticking to it)).  Then layered and machine-stitched (free motion) and bound with more of the silk which was the most difficult part - rotary cutting silk binding strips isn't something I'd recommend.

Not exactly a single stroke but pretty quick nevertheless.  Started Monday night, finished Weds afternoon whilst sitting chatting to a friend.  Not a great work of art but I sorta like it..

Inside Out I

I've written about the process so far; this is the finished piece. I think. I have been very selective about adding stitch, placing it only in the 'dark' areas of the piece, and to delineate the eyes, which I thought were the most important part of the piece, and the scar running down the side of the face, which is quilted using zigzag stitches; shades of Frankenstein's monster?

I found it remarkably difficult to stitch into my own face...until I started, and then it became just another piece of quilting, to be considered from the point of view of technique, structure and meaning. Emotionally, though, it was very difficult. I've made a lot of work about depression, but never directly used an image of myself to express feelings. It's as if I've been hiding behind abstraction, but am now coming out into the light, and letting everyone see how much darkness I carry around with me, regardless of how 'light' I appear. I'm crying as I write this, so it must be true... a therapy joke; I always weep when something is painfully true.

It will be interesting to see everyone else's posts, and the varied ways we have approached the challenge.