When you are thinking about creating a new quilt lots of things can influence you. Perhaps something you see or hear gives you an idea. I certainly have had lots of ideas for my new 'Words of Wisdom' series from things I have overheard. So far I have made a quilt about girls who wear (what some people think is) too much makeup, another about toilet seats, and a third about making the most of life. I have another in progress which is about spending money - I will write a post about that one in a week or so once it is finished.
However, this week I decided to explore creating another series of quilts, the inspiration for which has come from the quilt I made about the makeup. It is a sort of 'one thing leads to another' type thing. I have decided to try creating more work in the same style, using the black and white line drawn faces. Now I am not naturally 'good' at drawing, and am working on improving with lots of practise, and this project has really given me something to work on
The people I have chosen so far are all real. Each person has a story that I would like to try and tell. Some of the stories concern things that people often shy away from - so I don't anticipate this being a 'pretty' or terribly popular series of work, but rather a series of statements which I hope might make people stop and think.
This is a picture I have been working on of a little boy named Spinach. He must have been about 4 or 5 when I took his picture. He was sitting quietly in the dirt next to his mum, playing contentedly with a bent nail and a stone. Every time I see a child behaving badly I always think of Spinach and wish he could have the chances that those spoiled brats have.
This is Sophie. It isn't her real name. Sometimes Sophie looks like this - a beautiful young woman. But sometimes she looks like a she has gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson. She is one of many of the victims of domestic violence - an issue that is often overlooked, denied or not discussed as it is a 'private' matter that isn't to be interfered with.
This is Ella. Also not her real name. Ella thinks she is ugly. She couldn't be more wrong. She eats paper to stop herself feeling hungry and she thinks people don't know. Ella wants her Facebook profile picture to look like the air brushed models that have been put on a pedestal in the media. She believes her skin is not the right tone, that she has excess body fat and her hair doesn't look good. She doesn't see that she is a beautiful young woman.
This is Paul. He used to live in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but left when his family was killed during the war. When I first met him he did not speak English, but now he does - and very well too. He works as a car guard in CapeTown. If all goes well I hope to add more people to the series, but I am going to start with these four. I have been experimenting with different ways of putting the images of these people onto fabric - using all my favourite tools and techniques - and some new ones too. This is one of them - using the walnut ink I made a few weeks ago. I used it with a tiny paintbrush and simply painted it onto thin cotton sateen fabric. I chose this lovely fabric as it was easy for me to see the enlarged image of the face I printed out and placed behind. You can see the printed image behind the fabric in the first picture below. I'm not exactly sure how I will develop these images yet - it is going to be one of those 'wait and see' type things. But when I find something that works I will be sure to let you know! Thanks for reading.
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