From the Beginning

There's always something very exciting about beginning a new piece of work.  My thrust this coming year is to create abstract wall hangings - breaking out of the box of 5x7 pictures and oh so structured hearts, pockets and birds.  Just sitting around I doodled out these two designs on a piece of lined notebook paper (the closest thing at hand at the time).

From the scrap of notebook paper to a larger piece of paper for the 'real' design to be drawn.  Although I want to be as 'free' as I can be - there are a few limitations in working loop pile embroidery.  The fabric has to be very taut so I use a frame to stretch it.  The largest frame I've found is 10" x 10" square and I doubt if I would be comfortable using anything larger just due to the sometimes cumbersomeness (is that a word?) of the larger frame. So, when creating a design I must take my framed space into account - while I can have wavy edges, or go from thin to wider, I do have to stay within a 10" borders.  A longer or wider width/length can always be achieved by making two sections and stitching them together but I've not tried that yet.

So here we are, with punching begun.  This is the fun part because, although I have my design drawn, I now get to fiddle with colors and fibers and threads.  I can change a design component as I go along if I wish.  Who knows what I will end up with -- and that is part of the joy!

"Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiousity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit". - e. e. cummings.

Art Lessons

[Note:  We got back from our trip to Arizona late last night. Today my brain is on jet lag and I have 'tons' of photo's to go through.  I had prepared this post before we went and it is my 'fill-in' until I can get back to you with all the trip stuff.  Thanks for stopping by.]

With my interest in the more abstract aspects of art creation I've begun a new-to-me learning process.  I have never formally had art lessons (if you don't count my eighth grade class where I was more involved in what I was wearing than what I was creating).  While I've been 'arting' for years and years it has all been by the seat of the pants - if it looked good to me it was okay.  But as I've begun trying to create my own abstract punchneedle art I realized that I might need some help.

I have turned to a book entitled "The New Creative Artist".  It is written by a painter Nita Leland but this book is geared to more than those armed with a paint brush.  She addresses collage and fabric also.  My main reason for starting with this book is that she has a good sized section on abstract art.  Kindly however, she begins with the basics of art in general and as I read through it I realize how little I truly know. 

So here I am immersed in words and concepts such as: elements of design, principles of design, line, shape, value, harmony, gradation, balance - ah the list goes on and on.  Thank heaven for artists who are willing to share their knowledge with the rest of us.

 "During your whole life as an artist, learn through painstaking experimentation, exercise, and practice how to acquire a masterly knowledge of your craft". - Paul Jacques Grillo

Connecting the Loops

I am beginning another abstract punchneedle.  I have created the design, I have figured out the color scheme and I have transferred the pattern to Weaver's cloth. 

The process of punchneedle, especially abstract, is still new to me and I am just getting used to it.  When I begin an abstract punchneedle piece it is really an 'unknown'.  I can gather up my threads of many colors, I can create and prepare the pattern design but I cannot really 'see' how it is going to turn out.  When beginning a piece of punchneedle the design itself looks awful.  In fact, beginners often ask their teacher 'what am I doing wrong, it doesn't look like anything'.  Until I punch several rows or even a complete section of a design I try not to even turn the frame over because if I do, all I see are disconnected loops just standing there, not making any sense whatsoever.  Until they connect, until they rest against each other they are just standing there looking funny.

This connection makes me think about how I am, as an individual, connected with so many other individuals.  Sometimes, we look like the individual loops - not making any sense and looking slightly forlorn.  When I think about it, I realize how very much we need our connections to each other in order to have our lives make sense and in order for each of us to be a 'complete picture'.  Just some random thoughts as I punch this day...

"Without a sense of caring there can be no sense of community". - Anthony J. D'Angelo

Abstract Design

 Art by San Base

abstract: (adj) ...of or pertaining to nonrepresentational art; using only, lines, colors, generalized or geometrical shapes, etc.

I'm thinking in the abstract these days.  So far my punchneedle has been very representational - landscape scenes and folk art birds.  My mind seems to see things all in neat formal patterns.  A tree here, carefully balanced against the sky and the mountains.  Not that there is anything wrong with that -- BUT these days I feel the urge to just put color and thread down on fabric in all sorts of patterns.  I want to feel the freedom of free-form shapes, of colors that I don't normally think of 'going together'.  I want to start a new journey!

Art by Georgia O'Keefe

I've been using the internet and books from the library to look at what constitutes abstract.  I've found that some of the designs are free of any desire to convey a thought or mind picture while others represent 'something' in their abstract forms.  I would love to look at an object or a landscape and be able to translate it in my mind (and eventually down through my fingers) into an abstract design.  To tell you the truth I'm not sure I can do it -- after all these many years thinking one way.  Can I turn my mind inside out (which is what it feels to me) and make stitchery that doesn't represent something 'real'?  Can I create my own reality through needle and thread? 

"There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality". - Pablo Picasso