Embroidered Collage

My concept has become more complicated.  I did a little more reading today about classical musical forms and have decided that the materials I have from Casbah don't really fit a Suite.  But a Sonata would be fantastic.  Three movements, fast, slow, fast, with a potential for an overture and/or a coda.  The first movement is usually in the sonata form which is exposition, transition, then recapitualtion.  Basically you start with a motif and include a complementary version, make some variations in odd and unstable ways, then repeat the motif and complement, but with the latter dominant instead of the former.  The second movement includes simpler forms of the motif.  For the third movement I'm using a rondo, which is along the lines of ABACA.  I think I'll use carrier rods for A and echoes from the first movement for B and C.

As I read I think about how these forms can apply to the visual and am intrigued by the possibilities of the imposed limits.  I want to play with canons and fugues at some point in the future, go into more elaboration.  Just not in this piece.  And I'll probably still do a Suite at some point.  I don't listen to much music, except in the car, and this was definitely an unexpected source of pattern for me.

Last night I started a new piece which will be called "Casbah Suite".  I had been thinking about not continuing the Variations, of which I still had enough material for three or four, but doing something a little larger. 

I've decided I'm going to make 4" squares, do some individual embellishment, combine them in an overlapping fashion, and do some overall embellishment that crosses boundaries.  I'm using the Peltex as a support for the fabric this time, but following the same basic construction techniques otherwise.  The overall construction of this piece will also give me a chance to try out some of my ideas for "Dryad Glimpses" in a smaller and more organized setting.

A suite in music is a set of intrumental or orchestral pieces normally performed at a single setting.  At one point they were in the same or related keys and modeled after dances.   I intend to use this concept as a guide in my creation, hence the name.  I might or might not take the analogue further.  Bach composed a number of suites with specific components and it might be interesting to derive some complexity from that source.  My goal is to complete this piece in time to enter it into Galeria Aynex's Stitched Harmony exhibition.  The applications are due July 20 and digital images are preferred, so I think it is doable.

If the stitch is going to be my stated subject of interest then I really do need to do the samplers I've been putting off.  I've thought about them from time to time, going through the books and systematically stitching variations, but always had some other project to do.  Even if I all I choose to use for a piece is straight and couching stitches, I should have the greater vocabulary to hand.

I'll still need to continue developing my skills and ideas for the supports, because often that is where the greater part of the emotion or message or image will be.  There's a collage class in the fall nearby that I intend to take.  And I'll need to develop a greater sense of where the stitches will go, being able to expect them, without necessarily deliberately planning them out, so that they are fully integrated into the composition, unless, of course, the point for a particular piece is that they won't be.

It really is amazing how much the direction that you're coming from can change your perception, when that which you are looking at hasn't changed at all.

We had a fantastic meeting at work today about the direction of the company and growth opportunities in the future.  During a break I thought about my art and my career and it really hit me that I can't sustain a significant diversity of media with a full-time job, the stuff that needs to be done at home, and my sanity.  Currently, I'm spending a couple weeks on collage, have many fiber pieces I want to do, want to work on the painted lace some more, maybe try some monotyping.  I had already thought I might need to narrow down to effectively show and sell and had this half-formed idea I'd move back and forth until some pieces were accepted and then follow that path.

I went home and sat down and began scribbling, as that's the way I think best, trying to write down the answer to want do I want to do.  Where will I focus.  And the first part of my answer ended up being simple.  I want to stitch, by which I mean hand embroidery.  I find collaging and machine stitching and painting to be enjoyable, but the stitching by hand is what I love.  And part of a future artist's statement piled into my brain, although it might not be entirely true of my work to date.

I stitch.  A variety of surfaces support and enhance the embroidery, but what matters to me is the mark I make with the needle and thread I hold in my hand.  Whether the stitches are few and simple or many and complex, whether they are subordinate to the overall design or the focal point, they are the pivot point of my creations.

Not that this actually narrows down my previous query.  I'll still be going back and forth between my surface choices, but if I know what matters to me I can concentrate on it.  I won't be making paper only collages or many potential styles of art quilt.

I feel this is a natural development.  When I first became more interested in techniques outside of my old familiar cross-stitch it was the amazing books on manipulating stitches by Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn that really got my attention.  It was the variety of possibilities in needlepoint and the fascination of needlelace that made me think.  And in my quilt-like pieces so far I've even said previously that I looked at the artform more as a new place to embroidery, even though I love the effects that many others can achieve with just fabric.  I'll mull the idea over a while and if it still feels right in a couple weeks I'll develop an official artist's statement.