In my blog on Dec. 17th I mentioned the foolishness of trying to fit our theme Metamorphosis to my own work, mainly body images. Well, I've managed to do just that, and was so excited about it, I made four more. As you can see, that was easy to do since I chose images of the hand to work on. I was able to tie it into metamorphosis by referencing opposable thumbs and evolution, but really I was just looking for an excuse to continue my personal series.
I had access to an MRI of the hand with hundreds of images to choose from, so I isolated five that I wanted to work with. I started with five pieces of white fabric cut to the size I needed, and put them on my design wall next to each other so I could work on them all at the same time. I ended up finishing up the first one while partway through the second, and starting on the third, but couldn't work on all five at once, it was too distracting. These are all hand stitched, except for a few remnants from other projects that have some machine stitching on them.
The images below are images I worked with for this, reversed from black/white to white/black
Not knowing what the rest of our themes will be, I'm not sure if I can continue to relate them to body images, but I at least hope to continue with series work
11 comments:
Karen, I am so delighted to see these pieces. All of them! I think the opposible thumb link is as good as any, and I think linking the theme to the work that makes you excited is an ideal way to address these challenges! Your challenge piece has a mystery to it that is quite compelling! But I'm most enthralled with seeing all 5 together. They are just stunning.
Karen I want to comment today and yest I find I cant say anything substantve yet because there is so much to look at in this mini series! I am setting them aside to gorge on later without distraction.
I thought I spied fingers in an earlier peek. These are all just wonderful Karen. I love the color scheme you chose to work with and the lines and shapes you've added. My favorite part of these is the black lines and markings.
I think that the center one is the only one where I get the body part connection, but that doesn't diminish my enjoyment of the marks and colors and basic composition of all of them. I think that whether the spark is that ignites the creative fire is visible in the final piece(s) is less important than the enjoyment of the process and pride in the final product.
Like Helen, I feel like I want to study each piece! Do they have individual titles? I can see how you lifted shapes and elements from the five mri images and incorporated them into each of the five quilts. Really fascinating. I don't think the opposable thumb concept is a stretch at all -- in fact, I think the body is full of metamorphosis potential. I really like the color palette and all your stunning surface design and hand stitching.
You had some great fun with these. I liked comparing the art with the MRI. Wonderful surface design, as usual. I hope you will get a solo show with all of your work that uses medical imaging of body parts.
Since this is a study of the whole hand, I'm just going to call them studies 1 thru 5.
Since this is a study of the whole hand, I'm just going to call them studies 1 thru 5.
Working in series is, well, working for you, Karen!
These quilts give me pleasure-
the soothing palette; balanced positioning of the dark brown; hand stitching hand images made me chuckle.
I applaud you ;)
There is so much meaning here that the series reads like a narrative. Beautiful mark making and beautiful movement through the four pieces. Bravo!
I love the series together. There is so much to look at and take in. You are a master at surface design!
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