Inspired to Design class

My Academy of Quilting classes generally start on the first Friday of the month...and this month the class starting is Inspired to Design.  It's the first class I wrote and probably the most popular - I was asked to write a book based on it after a few years.

My other design classes are  Working in Series, and Abstract Art for Quiltmakers and More Abstract art for quiltmakers.  I have enough "exercises" stored away that I could actually write and "Even More abstract art for quilt makers"!  But probably won't.

 I do have several other ideas for classes tucked up my sleeve - or rather tucked into a folder on the computer (!)  - the equivalent of a sleeve these days.  I'd also love to hear from you if there's a class you've always wanted to find ,but never have (email me at elizabethyork100 AT yahoo.com, if you have an idea you'd like me to consider).

I often wonder why I2D is so popular though...and I think it's because it's how to design quilts based on your own photographs..photographs you bring to the class because they have special meaning for you.
 I notice that when people buy a piece of my art, whether a quilt or a painting, they do it because they discover a connection with that art work and their own lives.  Maybe they visited that place (e.g. paintings and quilts of Iona all went to people who had been inspired by the magic of that little island).
 (I would have put a picture here but, alas, I'm at the beach on too slow of a connection......)

 Recently, my agent sold a quilt I'd made of Iceland - to someone who'd always wanted to go there.

And somebody bought a very minimal winter beach quilt...because his wife loved winter beaches!

I did once have somebody buy a small quilt because his friend had the same name as me!!  But I can't rely on too many of those sales!

I think that in order to make a good piece of art you've  got to be really invested in its meaning in some way (even abstract quilts have meaning..of course it's...well...abstract!)
If the piece is more of a technical exercise, how can it be strong?    John Singer Sargent painted oil portraits of well off people for a living, but his heart was in his glorious little watercolors - which are the  paintings we prize now.

So if you have some images of landscapes, or cityscapes or still lifes or anything (!) that  hold a lot of impact for you......and you'vw been thinking about making a quilt based on them - but not TOO literally - then consider taking the Inspired to Design class!

And now, I'm going for a stroll on the beach!  If you have been, thanks for reading!.
Elizabeth

A trip to the galleries....

When I go to New York City, I love to visit all the art galleries...they're usually much less crowded than the museums...and, of course, are free!  And they have nice little "press releases" that give you lots of info.

On my recent trip I came across several artists whose work is very reminiscent of art quilts.

JUAN USLÉ
At Cheim and Read, down in Chelsea, there's a display of paintings by Juan Uslé.
Here's a nice little You Tube (sorry I don't know how to embed them)...alas I don't speak Spanish, but you can see some of his technique...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEUDM4rf7Ms

What's striking about the work (not all of it, but much) is how he's using quilt designs - basic grid structures, horizontal structures  as the basis of his paintings.
And imagine how beautiful those stuttering brush marks would be if interpreted with long stitches!!

It is said that those marks are based on his pulse, for Uslé describes his "sequential feild or territory of marks" as a "cardiogram".

Here are some of my photos from the show (which is up till June18).

CARMEN HERRERA

Carmen Herrera is originally from Cuba but has lived in New York for many years - she is 100 and still working (there's hope for me yet!)...but wasn't "discovered" until she was about 90....
Her work is very clean and crisp and reminds me of Modern quilts (or what modern quilts should be!! - yes, some are, I know, but a lot arn't!).

Here's a picture of the gallery (Lisson) with her work: (and you can see a lot more if you click the link on her name (above) - including one piece (Green Garden) I could swear I've seen at several art quilt shows!  The "motif" look!

What fun to look out of the window of the gallery and see another Herrera outside on a truck!
Now we know where she gets her inspiration:
























SIGMAR POLKE

And then of course Polke (also down in Chelsea) who paints on commercial printed fabric...this is a detail of a huge painting  - again I think it would be really interesting to piece the red and white and then do big globby hand stitches over the top!!!  Might actually look better!!!

Here's a very fun Yout-tube "critique" of a Polke show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aLd5f8Pugk

NASREEN MOHAMEDI

Of course I did get to the "old Whitney", now the Met Breuer...I had to see the show of drawings by Nasreen Mohamedi, the Indian artist.  Well known in India, but I've never heard of her in America.
Alas, she died very young but the show has a lot of her work.

Here's an example:

This reminded me of the obsessive  hand stitching  - thousands of straight lines - by my friend Juliarose Loffredo Triebes... (alas no website).....
But it would also make a good machine stitching idea...I really like the way the objects are suggested so delicately by the tiny little curves.
What was really interesting about this show too were the drawings based on the photos she took - how she interpreted the photo....very sophisticated, very abstract....a good lesson for us all - don't be too literal!!

And now to the beach....I wonder if I'll find as much inspiration!!  Well, a machine quilting design based on alligator hide might work...(yes there are alligators - really!).  

And, if you have been, thanks for reading!!  Do let me know if you've seen any of these shows, or any other shows that gave you ideas for quilts......Elizabeth

The Inspiration and Power of Color

Sunset on Salt Spring Island

Have you ever seen an image (painting, photograph...) where the  selection of colors was so beautiful that you just wanted to eat in it, bathe in it, surround yourselves with it???


 Imagine getting INTO this sky....a magical place....






















So many people, when you ask them what inspires them, say "oh color, colour, colour is what I love!" (no matter how you spell it!)...... the right colors really work to attract, nay, seduce!, people...

                                                              ******************

On the other hand, I've noticed that when I'm teaching, and ask people to bring images from which they'd like to work to design their quilt, the photos or prints etc they show me often have gorgeous colors and it's really hard  to get beyond that to see the "bones" of  the design.  Very reluctantly, some can be persuaded to photocopy the image into black and white ..so we can really see what's what.  And some look great in grey...others just disappear into a moosh of flat nothing!!
It is hard to get beyond  color, its siren song is so powerful.....

Some artists are strong on color,  some on the basic design... a few can manage both. 
I advocate one step at a time...it works for mountain climbing!  First, decide on the shape of the mountain!   Then go into color...and a lovely way to choose colors for a project is to work from those gorgeous photos you've collected over the years.

Color Immersion

But, one of the problems for our medium, when it comes to color, is actually finding cloth in the right hue/saturation/value/temperature - even knowing what to call the colors  is difficult sometimes!
If you look at the picture above, the turquoise on the left is in several different values...and it also shifts from a cool to a warmer blue.  The pink on the right goes from a warm orangey pink, through a slightly greyed pink to a blue-pink and then into mauve.  And then what color is that shadow?  What kind of a grey is that?  Is it important to the image?

I really enjoy analyzing the colors in an image - it's like tasting a lot of different wines!  There are so many subtle shifts in hue and value etc.    And so it was natural for me to try to learn how to dye all these different colors.   Now I don't believe in the blanket approach of taking every ingredient you have, working out all the mathematical permutations you can create, then dyeing them all and making a giant book of samples.  You know they tried that method when they were figuring out AI - artificial intelligence, and it actually doesn't work well.  It's much better to work from solving one problem at a time as you encounter it, and then adding that information to your body of knowledge, your working process.  

So in my Basic Dyeing for Quiltmakers class,
which just happens to start this Friday with www.academyofquilting.com   (!)
 I show you just how I do that.  Also I discuss the value of neutrals - those elusive greys and browns, and how to create them.  Learn how to create those seductive colors for yourself......it's really magic!

Please ask any questions in Comments!  or email me - there's a link on the sidebar at the top....

And, if you have been, thanks for reading!  Elizabeth

What you're listening to...and....knowledge beneath the surface.

I was listening to a podcast with Julie Mehretu, one of the leading abstract painters of the 21st century.  She said that whatever she's listening to when she's working in the studio tends to get into her work.
 D'you find that happens to you?  it does to me, and can significantly affect the way a piece is going...
and sometimes even leads to mehaving to get rid of a piece very quickly because it has so many negative connotations...like the one when I was listening to Schindler's List. (not that I told the buyer!). so hard....

Sometimes the work literally changes as a result of what I hear, other times, the work remains the same but  becomes imbued with the podcast or the story or the music I have going on at the time, so I'm finding I have to be careful of what I listen to!

I remember that Bluebeard's Castle, the opera by Bartok

 totally got into this piece:

Bluebeard's Castle

can't you just see it?

and I was listening to some very spooky music at Hallowe'en that got into this one:

Lavender Gothic

 Don't think many kids would be wandering up that path to Trick or Treat!!

I'm busy working on 3 abstract tops...I like to make a series of tops and then let them season for a while away from sight...when I get them out, it's like being able to see something for the first time and I can get a much better impression of them.  And since they're just tops, things are easily changed.

This one, for example, was horrible classhing colors...and I threw it into a blue dye bath:

Pump Court

I enjoy sketching and planning an outline, then a rather free form stick stuff up on the wall approach.  But I never do such a detailed sketch that I can't improvise a little when it comes to blocking out and sewing together.

I read a lovely definition of intuition the other day: Knowledge Beneath the Surface.
That's the clearest way of describing it that I've ever read.
In order to make art or play an instrument, improvisationally, one has to rely on that knowledge beneath the surface, embedded knowledge of keys and chords and composition and color theory and the whole nine yards. 

That's why so many of the best art quilts one sees in shows these days are made by people with art training...they have that underground knowledge.   They don't always acknowledge their knowledge however!    Both art teachers and music teachers (and probably other teachers too but I've not had experience of them) sometimes give the impression that one should just be able to come up with the right answer if you want it enough, if you stare at it enough.......if you practiced hard enough etc etc. 

So start learning!.....A little knowledge isn't  a dangerous thing, it's the start of a great journey, the culmination of which means that you have skills that you can use effortlessly.....
well...I hope! I'm looking forward to the day...

And now, I'm off the the Big City - New York!! - for a week.....so I won't be blogging next week, but I do hope to have some interesting new inspirations, comments, photos, cogitations etc...the following week.  and then I'm off to the beach!  and then the Smoky mountains...before hunkering down in my workroom for the indoor season here in Georgia that is otherwise known as summer!

If you have been, thanks for reading!  And do please comment - I love the comments - they keep me going!!  Elizabeth