In the late eighties, I took a fabric dyeing workshop with the intent of creating my own unique fabrics for one-of-a-kind quilts. Shortly thereafter, I started to study fabric panting and surface design with the same goal in mind. I've become good at neither because I keep picking them up and putting them down, never staying with them long enough to develop any real skill.
The something new I decided to do on Wednesday was to paint six canvasses with the idea of turning the finished pieces into purses. To give the exercise an outline that would hopefully allow me to make a significant step forward, I chose to follow the process that Betty Franks uses in her abstract painting. I've been watching her videos for quite a while and it seemed familiar and very approachable.
I love the way aspects of one medium cross over into another. My step-by-step approach to textile art was completely applicable to painting. I wasn't afraid of the blank canvas. I was able to focus on one step at a time. I (mostly) managed not to think too much and simply respond to the developing piece. I wasn't afraid of wrecking the piece and was confident that if I did not like the look of one action, I could move it forward with another.
Colour does not make me uncomfortable at all. I've worked with colour theory for over thirty years in one form or another and can confidently mix from primaries combined with black, and white. BUT... even with all these positives, there was an overtone of not working that felt like a line in the sand.
A wee small quirk of my personality is that I don't like to quit on someone or something. I am beyond loyal and willing to persevere and stick with it and make it work to the best of my ability. However, there comes a point when the relationship just isn't working.
The mark making beginning stages were fun. After that, fun declined and anxiety increased to the point that I realized I needed to make a decision. Was I going to stop flirting with painting and do the work needed to move forward or was I going to stop flirting with painting and put it down once and for all. Were the emotions I was dealing with the need to push through and become better or were they a sign that I was trying to be and do something I was not. There is only so much time, money, energy, and space - four critical criteria for evaluating being in or out. What was I willing to give to painting?
It seems so melodramatic to say I wrestled with this, even calling several friends to discuss that line and how to identify it - but I did, wrestle and call friends. What I want to create are one-at-a-time, one-of-a-kind creative garments and accessories and I thought about how do I best want to do that to express the authentic me and where does painting factor into that equation. By the end of the day, I'd mostly made a decision, slept on it, and in the morning...
It seems so melodramatic to say I wrestled with this, even calling several friends to discuss that line and how to identify it - but I did, wrestle and call friends. What I want to create are one-at-a-time, one-of-a-kind creative garments and accessories and I thought about how do I best want to do that to express the authentic me and where does painting factor into that equation. By the end of the day, I'd mostly made a decision, slept on it, and in the morning...
... I did some spring cleaning in the studio, sorted through all my surface design supplies, gave away anything to do with fabric dyeing and acrylic painting, and kept a small selection of fabric paints and tools for adding details to existing fabrics as opposed to completely painting a fabric. I reduced an entire closet down to one shelf and reconfirmed that I breathe in fabric, that beginning and ending with fabric is what gives me energy and that I'd rather build the design from fabric.
It's subtle. This purse illustrates what I mean. The flowers were stenciled onto white fabric and then individually cut out and fused to the denim with threadwork and beading added to create the end design. I love this kind of work. Fussy. Labour intensive. Predominately involving the sewing machine and thread. I would not have enjoyed painting the flowers onto the background and moving forward from there. I know that because...
... I ran that experiment. I cut a purse shape from used drop cloth fabric, raw canvas, and canvas with gesso and began to paint each one. The drop cloth and the canvas with gesso both accepted the paint unevenly and would have been a tremendous amount of work to create a pleasing piece with a heavy emphasis on paint. I would have been painting not sewing. The raw canvas absorbed the paint into a more continuous all over colour with some tone-on-tone shading that could be a lovely starting point for a piece, and probably will be...
... because I have three quarts of purple textile paint left over from an abandoned paint the couch project and some more raw canvas. To not waste them, and to provide myself with a challenge, at some point in the future I'll make a series of purses that start with purple. That's totally me - taking the same starting point and seeing how many directions it can go in. YES YES.
What have you stopped flirting with? What is totally you?
Talk soon - Myrna
Grateful - a decision made about painting that feels comfortable and final - finally.
... because I have three quarts of purple textile paint left over from an abandoned paint the couch project and some more raw canvas. To not waste them, and to provide myself with a challenge, at some point in the future I'll make a series of purses that start with purple. That's totally me - taking the same starting point and seeing how many directions it can go in. YES YES.
What have you stopped flirting with? What is totally you?
Talk soon - Myrna
Grateful - a decision made about painting that feels comfortable and final - finally.
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