Elizabeth Barton's recent post about avoiding cliches made me focus on why I have not been doing any hand work for a while now. She actually had me sketching faces on paper last night!
The word "twee" kept coming to mind (and gagging me) as I tried one small composition after the next, each time with some literal objective in mind. Finally, I went back to my established way of composing - gathering small bits of cloth that work well together, color and textures, and then stirring the two dimensional pot until a design emerges.
When something recognizable emerges, like figures, then I start to smell trouble. What is the story? How much to show? How much to leave in the wind? How far into cartoon do I want to dive.
At this point I have to rely on my admittedly limited stitch repertoire to define and refine. Faces are particularly deadly as they usually say too much. I prefer faces to be incongruous, contrary even, to what seems to be going on.
I don't want to to spell it out for the viewer.
Sometimes there are elements that have to be weeded out or brought into focus in an unexpected manner.
This piece continues to compel me.
4 comments:
I so agree about the balance of suggestion and story being a difficult one to achieve. But it's such an interesting challenge.
like a little hidden treasure hunt.
i rather like the blankness of faces
and that the mood is set by the viewer and by their experiences.
their relationship to color, line, composition.
i remember in an english class in college we were given a sentence from a book
it was something like
and the zebras were all around
and we had to determine where the narrator was located and what was going on.
and everyone wrote something different, although many had similarities.
but i'm not skilled at making faces and think sometimes i avoid them simply because i can't make them very well.
in reality to author was standing in a street after a bombing that struck a zoo.
it's lovely... looking forward to more!
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