Wow - this was really a challange. I am not a mathmatical person, I have no love for numbers, and most of my children are the same. The idea for this piece was to show my frustration with math, and trying over the years to help my kids with their homework. I started with a piece of black cotton sateen that I screened over with a bleach solution using a thermofax screen I made from my son's homework. I then tried out a new technique I learned in my recent class with Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan called paper lamination. Using matte medium and sheer polyester fabric, I laminated my son' work to the fabric, I then used fusible interfacing to hold it down and added the handstitching. It was fun to work with this method, and kind of sad that as I was stitching, I couldn't figure out any of the equations!Monday, December 1, 2008
By The Numbers
Wow - this was really a challange. I am not a mathmatical person, I have no love for numbers, and most of my children are the same. The idea for this piece was to show my frustration with math, and trying over the years to help my kids with their homework. I started with a piece of black cotton sateen that I screened over with a bleach solution using a thermofax screen I made from my son's homework. I then tried out a new technique I learned in my recent class with Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan called paper lamination. Using matte medium and sheer polyester fabric, I laminated my son' work to the fabric, I then used fusible interfacing to hold it down and added the handstitching. It was fun to work with this method, and kind of sad that as I was stitching, I couldn't figure out any of the equations!
I am having a deja vu moment. Helping with the new math was beyond me. Thank goodness for a dad who was able to fill the gap.
ReplyDeleteI love how you used the math problems in two different ways and changed the size of the numbers. You also get a sense of the problem on a blackboard. Do they still use blackboards?
I love how you expressed the frustration math can cause and the new technique you used to incorporate actual math homework.
ReplyDeleteMy last experience with trying to help someone with higher math was a disaster. We were first married and my husband was in engineering school. I was known as being math savy, but it had been quite some time since I had done anything math related. I didn't want to put the effort into understanding differencial equations. Needless to say, it didn't go well! Luckily we able to quickly forgive and I didn't have to sleep on a bench on the sailboat we were living on.
This is exactly how I feel when confronted with math!
ReplyDeleteI find this very striking, Karen. And it it is a great image of the school blackboards and whiteboards. I especially like that you incorporated your son's actual work in it.
ReplyDeleteThis piece is subtle and fascinating. You really need to click for the large size to fully appreciate all that is there. I love the feeling of fragments of thought and bits of information that don't seem to be complete--certainly the experience of schoolroom mathematics that resonates with so many of us. Visually it has a feeling of archeological fragments or bits of decaying manuscripts. Lovely.
ReplyDeleteI can identify with what look to me like scrumpled up and ripped up attempts at getting the maths right! And what an great excuse for not handing in homework. No more 'the dog ate it' but 'my Mum quilted it'! I have no idea how to use a thermofax screen - can you teach me sometime?
ReplyDeleteOh yes! This is an articulate expression of MY experiences with complex nmaths, too! I adore the deceptive simplicity of this quilt. Very elegant (which is a word my husband often uses to describe solutions to maths or physics problems!).
ReplyDeleteLOL...I'm with you Karen, I'd have gone cross-eyed looking at those math problems. I am intrigued with the techniques you used to create this.
ReplyDeleteThis theme seems to have generated a lot of research and homework. Old fashioned homework seems such an ephemeral thing and you have captured this quality beautifully.
ReplyDeleteI love how you used bleach with your screen. How did you add the red signs?
ReplyDeleteLaminating the paper was a great idea too.
Beautiful work.
So many interesting techniques here. Great job. I love the idea of incorporating actual paper into the art. I really like the designs created by the equations. Here is another in our series that uses red as an accent color. Fascinating!
ReplyDeleteIt is almost a map! I like the way you made it and the contrast of the black and white. Well done! Goed gedaan (the same in Dutch)
ReplyDelete