Show, don’t tell!

This is the advice given to beginning writers and is definitely applicable to art quilts! A piece should be About Something and that Something should be clearly evident to the viewer – even if they have to work at it a little!! Not too much, otherwise they’ll pass on to the next “masterpiece”! You shouldn’t need to look at the title to see what the piece is about, or worse yet – read the "explanation".

I've never understood why the editors of art quilt show catalogues ask for those descriptions. It is as if they assume that you weren’t able to convey your subject, whether literal or abstract, in the piece. The names of famous paintings from the past don’t have long names and explanations – they frequently just dryly announce the setting e.g. “Dedham Valley”, or the “Big Splash” – and leave it up to the painting to tell you what it is about the valley or the pool that so intrigued the painter that he had to make a painting about it.

I do think it’s very important to know what you’re making a piece about before you start making it. I can’t see a piece working well if you shuffle around some pretty bits of cloth till they look ok and then stitch (or worse yet, the “f” word!!) them together and then stand back and think "now, what is this about?"!!

So in future, if your piece is about the heat of a summer day – show it!! Use hot colours and glaring edges that bleed together, the sharp edges of the harsh bright light, the deep shadows...

If it’s about early spring in a valley – show all the soft greens, the rounded edges, the slightly hazy light that indicate that time of year.

But don’t write a laboured explanation!!! And don’t just throw elements into the piece at random and hope it will all balance when you get it together and you'll be able to explain it all in the description with some high sounding waffle!

Let us eschew the “descriptions” in catalogues and instead argue for a detail in that space, or – even more interesting – a small picture of another piece from the same series!

Let us Show, not tell!

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

Elizabeth

So what IS good art?

Is anyone else trying to predict what those Quilt National judges will like?
I know I am!
How can we predict what the judges will be looking for?
Do judges of art shows in general follow particular guidelines when deciding whether a piece is IN or OUT?
Some people say it’s impossible to define good art – or bad for that matter.
But I think one can get a bit closer than that …….

One way would be to ask if the art in question fulfilled its purpose.

A good doorbell is one that rings loudly and clearly and predictably enough to summon the household to the door. People can have different tastes in door bells – but no one would think a door bell “good” that didn’t serve the function of a door bell.

The purpose of a piece of art is determined partly by the maker and partly by the ultimate owner. The painter may paint the picture to convey the beauty of color and light in a particular scene, the owner buys it because the image gives them great pleasure and delight. He/she just can’t stop looking at it – every time they go into the room their eyes are drawn to the piece and they derive joy from the colour and light.

The maker decides what they want to convey with the clay as they begin to mould it, the value sketches preparatory to the painting, the mood before the poem, the sounds before the symphony.

In judging a piece, assess how well the maker of the piece expressed the idea they had in mind at the outset. It’s impossible to make a strong piece without a clear idea – if Picasso wanted to paint a pretty picture for a maternity ward when he painted Guernica he missed the mark!! Of course he didn’t, he wanted t o express his feelings about the war that was going on at the time - but had his commission been for the expectant mums/moms, they would probably have given up their labour and gone home!

It’s very difficult to assess art where the maker states that at the outset they had no idea they wished to convey – they “just moved the pieces around until they seemed to fit”. Can you imagine an engineer thinking – “oh what a lovely day to make a machine….I’ll decide what it’s going to do after I’ve got a few pieces put together”!!!!

The composition of the parts (whether they be lines, shapes, values etc or nuts, bolts, rings, motors) should relate completely to the basic idea and t o each other.

A good toaster is one that toasts but also keeps on toasting year after year……

A piece of art should keep on fulfilling its purpose year after year. This is one of the problems with “pretty” art – it looks attractive when you first buy and hang it, but mere prettiness soon gets boring – it doesn’t delight and refresh our eyes year after year. There are several “pretty” paintings that now hang in our guest room!!! I can’t bear to look at the boring things any longer!

I think that the reason this kind of art doesn’t work for long is because the reason it was made was slick or spurious or manipulative – e.g. “I’ll make a pretty picture of a pretty thing that people can hang in their bathroom and I’ll sell a lot of them…”.or “I want to show that my beliefs are right and yours are wrong”, or “if I make this cigarette look really enticing to teenagers they will buy it and get addicted”….

A good piece of art will also be well made: Craftsmanship is important. Whatever the object is, if it’s poorly made it’s not going to be good: poor craft will detract from it either because it won’t last very long, or because the ugly stitches or gaping holes etc distract from the main intent.

So now…back to my sewing room – what do I want to convey? How best can I do that?

And ….will they believe me?

Please write....tell me what you think good art is.....

and, if you have been.........thanks for reading!!

Elizabeth

Line

Line, shape, value, color and texture are the variables we play with in creating quilts.
(Yes! I know some people add gradation and direction , but since you achieve those with line, shape or value anyway, I prefer to think about the basic five.)
My earliest quilts were all about colour and light – I wanted to get the effect of light shining through windows as I have always been entranced by that.
I wanted the glow, and colour and value were my tools.

Probably this was a result of growing up in cold grey gloomy Yorkshire. When you grow up in a place with such varying light quality every day, it becomes very important - like breathing! I think what fascinates us visually must be laid down in the brain very early.
And I notice I keep going back to those early visual memories.

But for the last year I've been really focussed on line - hungry for it!!

My hometown is largely medieval, though whole sections are Roman (about 2,000 years old). So the lines aren’t straight! And, as a result ( like Hundertwasser!) I’ve always been a bit wary of very straight lines! Could never achieve them anyway, either literally or metaphorically!!
I love the lines the old timbers make in the buildings, both inside and out. The warping of lintels, the wearing of stone steps........


the sagging of roof trusses. So, I was very interested to read in Robert Genn’s newsletter that he feels that LINE is the most important element; that there is an “energy in line” that shape or value doesn’t have.
Lines can be sensitive or direct, straight or curved, appear and disappear, hesitate and break or strike out boldly. Not every subject demands an emphasis on line, but my current focus demands it!! I’ve made (well, almost made!) 12 of these pieces so far and I still feel hungry for more.

And if you have been………………………………………..thanks for reading!Elizabeth