Departure

This week's quilt, number 49/09, is quite a departure for me ~ hence its name, Departure. I really love this piece. The three vertical pieces are digital images, the bottom piece is a deconstructed print.

This piece feels like a departure from what I've done previously, in several ways...

• it's bolder, more graphic
• the quilting is much looser, doesn't keep to the structure of the design on the fabric as I've tended to do on earlier quilts
• it's more abstract, it feels like an abstract painting
  
• rather than finishing the quilt with a facing on the back and then glueing that to a frame, I made the top big enough to stretch over a framed canvas, beyond the 10x10" quilted area. I'll just finish off the back with kraft paper and it will be ready to hang.
  

There's a freedom in this piece, as well, that feels exciting to me. I think my art is changing...and that's a wonderful thing. Feels like I'm taking steps closer to where I want to be, closer to the art I want to be creating.

I'm trying to work more spontaneously now, to not deliberate too long over all those decisions that go into the making of a piece of art. Trusting my gut, my instinct. That sense comes through for me in Departure. I also experienced that spontaneity in the 8x10" study I did a few days ago for Fiberactions' Initiative challenge -- I wish I could show it to you but I won't until January 15 when we post our finished pieces. Anyhow, I worked quickly to make that piece and I love how it turned out -- i.e., I'm happy with the solutions I arrived at to achieve what I wanted.

I've completed three quilts recently based on paper collages, and although I'm putting together a fourth piece in this genre, I've pretty much decided against moving further in this direction. The first piece of the bunch was Snake Eyes, a tiled digital image on linen that was quilted pretty much right along the printed design on the fabric. I enjoyed making this piece and do love the finished product. But doing more of this very same thing feels too representational. Or perhaps it seems too mechanical -- make collage, take photo, manipulate photo, print on fabric, make fabric/batting sandwich, quilt printed design.

The second and third pieces in this series, Morning Prayer and Meditation, although I do like them, gave me the feeling that I was looking backward rather than forward. Making a quilt today based on a collage I created weeks, months, or even a year ago seems like moving in the wrong direction. There was spontaneity in creating each original collage. Translating that into fabric, now, feels contrived.

So stay tuned, to see what's next!