Saturday, May 1, 2010

Flow

The volcano theme was an opportunity to stretch myself and try some things that have been in the back of my mind. First of all, I had already decided that the next piece, regardless of what the theme was, would be non-representational. I was also wanting to try some work using strong, solid colors, as opposed to my favored prints and to create a very flat, strong design.The colors threw me a bit at first. It is always a little odd to see a palette of colors presented in a block, with each color of equal size. What I always used to teach in my color classes was that the proportion of each color used in a piece is what creates the interest. I had to remind myself of that.

Early in my process, before any real planning was done, I went to Cleveland to tape a TV show and visited the wonderful Cleveland Art Museum, where I saw an exhibit of Native American art and craft. One of the pieces was this Seminole pieced shirt and it immediately struck me as very similar to Kristin's volcanic color scheme. Its strong geometrics and stripes became an inspiration. As I began playing with sketches I began to see concepts that reminded me of geological earth layers and I thought of how molten lava and magma moves beneath the earth and eventually finds its way to the surface as volcanic activity. I also remembered seeing lava formations called "ropey lava" where the molten material had hardened into sinuous strands. This became inspiration for my quilting design.

I had such a good time with this challenge! It pushed me into a direction I have been thinking about for a long while and taught me things about interpreting concrete images into abstract impressions of those images. I also thought it ironic that my last piece, for the blue/white/black challenge was an actual image of one of our local dormant volcanoes, Mt. Hood.



                              

6 comments:

Deborah Boschert said...

I still knew it was yours, Terry. I love it. It really shows a strong sense of personal style when you can create something outside of your traditional signature style, but still clearly fits in your portfolio. I recognize the graceful quilting lines and the black outlines. You are so right about the proportion of each color. I love the balance here!

Terri Stegmiller said...

I agree with Deborah, I could tell this was yours. I love it and find your comment about the color proportion so so true as I look at the quilts that are appearing.

Gerrie said...

Ha!! When you described your piece to me, I did not imagine the undulating lava factor. I think it is so funny that you and I did similar pieces. We are usually pretty far apart. Who is channeling who/whom? Of course, yours is much more elegant and contained in its execution. I am the wild child. LOL

I love the quilting that you did. Very nice. So, did I use too much red?

Karen said...

This is very much you Terry, and I think you captured the idea in a very non representational way, The lava stitching is wonderful. I have a similar photo of lava and thinking about incorporating it in my piece, but you nailed it.

Diane Perin said...

Terry, I am amused that you and I went toward the geological earth layers as a source of inspiration -- but not that surprised, really. After all, didn't you and I win the award for similarity last round?! I love the seminole-type design in the orange layer and I love how your quilting lines add more flowing dimension. Just gorgeous!

Kristin L said...

I love how you used the seminole piecing as inspiration, but didn't stick to the straight lines. Adding the undulation works so well to make it read "volcano" while remaining essentially abstract. I think you absolutely nailed it. I also want to see yours, Gerrie's and Diane's all next to each other. As the hawaiians would say, they are "calabash cousins."