I really don't like this piece right now, but am at a loss how to proceed. I'm tempted to just rip it up and walk away from it. I'm working on it for a special exhibit for PIQF and don't have time to start something else. The exhibit is "Singular Sensations" and requires a whole cloth piece. This is all hand painted, screened and stamped. It is 18" by 32". I feel like I've "wasted" the past two weekends working on it. Be brutal. Is it as bad as I think, or should I keep working?
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12 comments:
No time spent working is ever "wasted".... I do not think this is a "bad" piece. It does not look quite finished. How can you tie the elements together?
Please don't give up--it's going to be a wonderful exhibit and you need to be a part of it!
I am less concerned with what I think of this piece (I kind of like it) than with what you think of it. What don't you like about it? If you can articulate in as much detail as possible what you like and what you dislike, then you can answer your own question -- should you just give up?
Perhaps before you do this you should put the piece away for a week, or however long you think you can spare before the deadline. When you start feeling negative about a piece it's often cumulative, and the more you see it the more you dislike it. But if you can go away for a while you can often see things in a new light and realize it isn't so bad after all.
I gather that you haven't started quilting it yet. Usually quilting puts a significant finishing touch on a whole cloth quilt (because it's so much more apparent than on a pieced quilt) and it's hard to tell beforehand how it's going to turn out.
I agree with Gay- it's not a lost cause. What could tie the various elements together, because right now they are floating separately on the background. Have you done any discharge on it yet? Somehow the grid is a little too obvious to me.
Good luck, I want you to be part of the exhibit too!!
The piece needs something to tie it all together. It has lights and mid tone colors but no dark range colors. What can you do to add that and unify the piece. Ironically, a friend of mine was going through the same thing with circles and decided to make super huge circles over the whole piece! What a difference! Play around with it in photoshop to audition some ideas!
First, what is your title? If it is Singularity - then you got it covered because you only have one of most of the elements (ignoring the green grid for the moment). If you have a different title... maybe it will speak to the need for some more content. I lean toward repeating the arc and the sqiggle. Draw those on transparency sheets and pin them over the quilt and squint to see if it helps. Sampling always helps me decide these things.
Diane
Create a focal point and you will absolutely fall in love with the piece!
Create a focal point and you will absolutely fall in love with the piece!
Is that writing on the piece Shorthand??? I learned that way back in high school, and used it for a long time at various jobs. Your piece would benefit by a focal point, I think, just to make it look "complete".
Hmm,right now it is an interesting piece of fabric that I would be quite happy to cut up and use. Not what you are going for I am sure. What I notice first when I look at the piece is the grid, it dominates the other elements but doesn't unify them. I agree with other commenters that you need to add a unifying something, maybe a large spiral to connect all/many/most of the separate sections and give the viewers eye a focal point. But since repetition is a principal of design I don't think I would add any new shapes at this point, it might make the piece too busy. Hmm maybe another grid at an angle to the current one but in a different color? Just brainstorming here. You could try using a large sheet of tracing paper laying it over the fabric and then drawing on that with colored pencils to try various shapes/colors and positions. Good luck, I love the colors and don't think you should give up just yet. You have done some lovely work, I am sure you will figure this out.
Kathy Walker
http://katwalkdesigns.blogspot.com/
For what it is worth I too agree that this is not a bad piece, perhaps just not finished. I find the elements very isolated, what if you overlapped some of them? of not have them confined to the space. Can you do it in a photo program just to see how it would look. Some stitching in blue/purple might add to the overall feel of the piece....
Perhaps an angled section of large, dark (blue?) "shorthand" overlaying the grid. It would make the grid recede into a patterned background and the large writing would become the focal point...which means I am agreeing with the others who suggested the piece lacked a focal point! I very much like your colors and the concept, so please don't just pitch it. Step back and comtemplate possible focal points...good luck and thanks for sharing!
I think there is a lot of hope for this work. You have a dominant natural grid and many of your singular elements are located on that grid. Perhaps you could unify the singular elements to the dominant grid with a large hand-stitched or small line painted grid which frames each singular element giving an overall dimentional layered effect. You could draw this grid out on tracing paper with a large marker then place it over the work to see what it will like. This may or may not be the answer but I wish you Good Luck with it...
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