How Do You Handle Design Challenges?

Imagine being given a photo of Italian art to use as design inspiration.....how would you handle it?  Would you use the imagery as it is - a realistic portrayal? Would you take pieces or elements of the photo and go from there? How about colours....or size? So many choices, so many decisions!

 

A few months back I was invited to create a piece of textile art based on "The Annunciation" by Fra Angelico......as a group of artists we were each given a different art work to use as a "jumping off point" for our own work. I'm not sure what images the others were given but since the exhibition is at the Italian Cultural Centre in Vancouver, I imagine the art was all Italian.....haha!

Have you ever taken part in something similar? How did you approach this? What ideas and decisions were you faced with? Sometimes it's easier to work within parameters than being given free rein. I began by turning the art into a rough portrait format and thinking how I could place the figures, I also loved the multicoloured wings of Gabriel.

After some reflection I realized that I really had never used figures or people in my work and I didn't want to start doing so......amidst all the design work I wanted to explore how this piece might be come a beginning for a new series. I had taken masses of photos during my recent walk on the Camino de Santiago and had some great interior shots of the cathedrals I had visited:

So then I started to focus on the building part of the artwork - the figures appear to be in a "cloister" which is generally "a covered walk in a convent, monastery, college, or cathedral, typically with a wall on one side and a colonnade open to a quadrangle on the other". It was beginning to make sense for me...look up to the soaring arches of the space above>

I wasn't sure about the columns, so those were eliminated. I was working at simplifying the design to some very basic shapes.

 

I'm  looking now with the idea of construction - how am I going to put it all together? As my career began as a traditional quilter, I'm familiar with a wide variety of piecing methods so I decided a "stack, slash, shuffle" method was the best choice. the widths of the sections would be the same but I could work with different lengths and thereby achieve a variety of rectangles and get some visual interest going....

The fabric had been chosen a while back, luscious hand dyed vintage linen with wonderful drape to it - a little on the heavy side but I knew the texture and thread count would be perfect.

Construction began and went smoothly - put together in less than a day.

 

I had pulled out a dozen or more threads for the quilting but in the end only used four - I thought some metallic would be good but changed my mind. 
And so "In the Cloister" heads off for the exhibition shortly and the shapes, imagery and design will be considered for the future, perhaps this winter would be a good time to begin!

In the Cloister

I hope you'll join me at the Exhibition Opening - September 12th at 7pm. at the Italian Cultural Centre in Vancouver.

 

What Do You Think?

I'm just finishing a piece that I want to enter into the Quilts=Art=Quilts Exhibition http://www.schweinfurthartcenter.org/, just need to take out some basting and get it photographed. The deadline is July 25th so I've got masses of time, right? I'll post a photo of it once I know if its been accepted.
So here's my dilemma: I want to continue working with the theme  that began with the first piece, an abstraction of an abandoned shipyard in North Vancouver. I took several photos years ago that I keep coming back to as design inspiration.
But I can't decide which one I should work with....so you get to vote! I like them all and will probably create a piece from each of them, but I just want to get started!
In no particular order, should it be Photo#1:

 Photo #2

 Or Photo #3

You can leave your vote in the comments below.... and in case you are wondering, here's link to some history of the site: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burrard_Dry_Dock

It's Printed Bee Time!!!

I love December, not only is it Christmas, but its also my birthday on Dec. 7th (and I'll be 60 this year!!!) but best of all, its my month for the Printed Bee! Golly, it's just so exciting!
My theme was sunflowers, with their rich colours and cheerful disposition, they seemed like a great choice to challenge all the Bee artists!
So, here's the picture of all the fabrics made for me.....

I'll add the missing ones as they arrive.
As usual I'll be sending out a selection of 6" squares from all the artists to one lucky winner. All you need to do, is to add a comment below and tell us how you would use the squares in a new project for 2015! I'd love to hear from you, and I'll draw a name on Dec. 15th......
BTW, did you see the great article about the Printed Bee and our inspirations in the latest issue of Quilting Arts Magazine?