Thursday, July 1, 2010

Kyoto Revisited

With my studio packed up, and being out of the country for two weeks, this piece was a challenge. I knew I need to get a good start on it before we left.  I had a piece of deconstructed screen print that I just loved in purple and yellow, so I used that as a starting point.  Often when you use complementary colors in dye, you end up with mud, but this piece didn't do that, so I lucked out.


I think I was channeling our trip, because I started laying this out and the temples we had seen in Japan on an earlier trip came to mind. Then when I was studying it, the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto popped into my head. So this is my abstracted memory of past travels.

11 comments:

Françoise said...

It is so beautiful Karen! And yes, I can see the Golden Pavilion in this. I love it.

Unknown said...

You know, thsi was a good lesson for me. I struggle wit deconstructed printing cloth because to me it all so ofetn looks like dirt splotches and i can't see why I would want to have the resultant cloth in my stash so i don't do it. But this - well, NOW I understand! Simple abstraction gives way to something that is far from simple. I have bene looking at it for a long time. As I would the real pavillion shimmering in watery reflections.

Terri Stegmiller said...

Beautiful Karen. Lots of interest in this that keeps me looking around.

Cate Rose said...

Wonderful fabric, Karen, and a wonderful quilt!

Gerrie said...

I love this. I have got to get some deconstructed screens done. I think your quilting adds to the symmetry of this piece.

Marianne said...

Simply Beautiful

Terry Grant said...

Karen, your work astonishes me. You use the dyeing and printing techniques that so often do produce mud or "moosh" as I call it, yet your work never goes there. It has such complexity and clarity and beautiful composition. You have such a refined gift for abstraction. It is so far from what I do that I always am in such awe and wonder "where does this come from?" It's a part of your brain that I have no equivalent for! This is beautiful.

Diane Perin said...

Wow. This is stunning. Karen, I am so impressed at how you have found your home in the deconstructed printing and other surface design work you are doing, and it is showing so amazingly in the pieces you make.

This seems to me to be the ultimate perfect abstraction. I could look at this for a long time. Beautifully composed, and the marks on the fabric which have an accidental quality to them seem also intentional and very painterly.

just LOVE this.

Deborah Boschert said...

I am so amazed by the messy, edgy, wild painted pattern contrasted with the very linear, long blocks of the composition. They compliment each other so well. "Complementary" indeed!

Joanne S said...

Exceedingly painterly. I also could view this piece for a long time and always find it drawing me in to it's mysteries, discovering something new. Bravo.

Kristin L said...

I agree that this is complimentary in many ways. I also like the way that the black is evocative of sumi-i brushwork yet is very much your hand and not mock asian. I like this more each time I look at it.