Only One More Sleep to Go

Done!

Two-ish sleeps to go...

Three & a bit sleeps to go

Space and Light

There's only a week to go until the "reveal" of our illumination themed quilts. For further inspiration, check out the Space & Light exhibition at the Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery in Sydney until 23 August that you can also view online. This exhibition was inspired curatorially by James Turell, Claude Monet and Walter De Maria, The Chicho Museum, Naoshima, Japan and features works by Emily Kngwarreye, Regina Wilson, Dorothy Napangarti, Lilly Kelly Napangarti and Ngoia Pollard Napaljarri.

There is no object in this work. There never was. There is no image within it. It demonstrates the play of light and the manifestation of movement. Light is material in space and reflects nature. This space is made for Indigenous Art. The space allows you to comprehend its size, the depth of it, without being overwhelmed. When you are ready, its own space draws you in. Colour? Colour is manufactured perceptually!

And doesn't Sandhills look like a thread drawing?

Abandoned Efforts

In the spirit of shedding some light on the creative process, here is one of my abandoned efforts. You can read more about it on my blog. What do you see?

A Tease

This is a somewhat altered and cropped out detail of what I am doing for the next challenge. I am off on Sunday for a week at the Coupeville Arts Center on Whidby Island, WA. I will have 5 days to finish it. I think I can manage that. I am taking a Japanese technique class — color rice paste on silk.

2 weeks to go

Yay! I'm done!

Here are some scraps from my Illumination piece. You can see that I stuck to my usual subdued palette.

And I'm really happy with my result, which is a good feeling.

I have this other idea that has been haunting me, so I may even try to work a bit with that... But I'm happy that an image I had in my head translated well to fabric. That's not always how it works for me...

Light Works

I once read that New Zealanders have a heightened awareness of the letter "z" and I know that a Z in a bunch of text will often catch my eye. I find the same thing happening with our Twelve by Twelve challenge themes as anything vaguely related to a particular theme grabs my attention. I spotted a small article in a magazine about Western Australian artist Brian McKay whose light works display the effects of light and ambient colour on specially prepared aluminium panels. My illumination quilt will not be so polished but it is slowly taking form...

Woo Hoo

I've made a start!

My goal is to finish it by the end of this weekend. I can do it...I can do it.....

On another note....is it cheating if I have the next theme chosen and already know what I want to create?

AAAAAAAGH!!!

I have nothing to show and no significant thought processes to share.
Just a whole lot of nothing.

I know I'm not the only one who has struggled with this challenge, but Oh My Goodness. There is only the tiniest glimmering of an idea there. I have long loved the way Impressionism records light and I kind of fancy doing something that references those paintings. But it's not coming...


It's like being a week overdue with a baby.


grumble grumble

Me Too!

I am so pleased with my progress. I had a really rough start... like many of us. I did some mono-printing with less than stellar results, but I salvaged some potential. I'm going to be out of town for awhile, so I've planned lots of hand work and embellishment that I can do on the road. You can see a peek above. I ended up using black... which totally surprised me!

Almost done

My "Illumination" piece is done except for trimming it to size and finishing the outside edge.

I think everyone has struggled with this theme. I know I did. Two false starts, one nearly finished, before I really got into an idea that worked for me. And it is a simple idea. That's just a little teaser at the left. For all the angst and struggle, from what I am seeing I think this is going to be a spectacular reveal. I can hardly wait!

Will we then be able to say we have achieved illumination?

Done, but not done

I've done it. I finished my illumination quilt. Now that I still have time though, I'm considering trying to do another with the idea I was originally going to use before I got side tracked with the hokey idea that turned out not to be so cheesy after all.

Meditation

I kept the same idea, carved another printing block, changed the stencil shape a bit... It's not Buddha anymore. It could be anybody sitting and meditating. It could be you, it could be me...
I'm very very far from reaching illumination... But, now, I've got a 12x12 quilt top!
:-)