Critique: Helpful or Hurtful

Recently I had the opportunity to participate in an on-line critique process.  I chose this work to have reviewed as I put an awful lot of effort into it and yet, have had it rejected from a few calls.  Since the figures are hand embroidered and the background is painted/printed/dyed I did wonder if it was this contrast that created a disconnect for the viewer.  

The viewers could only see the work from a distance on their screens but this vantage point brought out interesting points.  Although all comments were positive about the figures, there was much critical commentary about the background.  It wasn't what I expected.  Many didn't understand that the red painted shape was an apple, but even if it is, it was suggested that it is too close to the figures and out of scale.  

other comments included:

• The dark spot over their heads was confusing
• they seem to be floating over the background rather than IN the scenery
• the little strip of blue sky at the top maybe unnecessary

Since I worked on the figures for so long I am willing to cut them out and re-create a new background for them.  That is definitely on my 'to-do' list.

However I wondered if you would be interested in weighing in on this critique, not to mention critiques in general.  I had thought that I was lucky to have been chosen by SAQA for this opportunity.  But some people have let me know that I was very brave to do this and they wouldn't be able to expose their work to strangers in this way.  What do you think?  Critique: helpful or hurtful?

 

self portrait

Self Portrait

20 inches wide by 17 inches high including frame

Detail

This work is entirely hand embroidered with chain stitch.  

The embroidery was stitched onto hand dyed cotton.

Second Detail

This work was based on this photograph taken of me, by a very good friend, a very long time ago.  Recently, our paths crossed again, and he gifted me this photo that he had saved all these years. He reminded me that he was an avid amateur photographer at the time, and even did the developing himself.  I do wonder why he kept this photo of me for over 30 years. I have my theories, and you can have yours, but I can suggest that the moment he caught does seem quite intimate.

Although the hand embroidery was extremely time consuming and labour intensive, I do find it is helpful for settling the mind and soothing the spirit.

 

The Fallen; redux

 

Although I generally don't re-post my work, I had promised to re-post the fallen when the photograph was properly taken.  Thanks go out to Sylvia Galbraith (who is an amazing photographer).  She seems to really understand what it takes to photograph fibre.  She is also an amazing landscape photographer.

So, here is "The Fallen" again, represented in the actual colours it is in 'real life'.

This is the detail shot that Sylvia took.  The stitching on the leaves was all done by hand, generally what would be understood as seed stitch, but there are also other embroidery stitches.  The arking lines on the background fabric are free motion stitches quilting through the layers of fabric.

 

Covid Posies

Covid Posies

When this lock down began, I became a bit frozen, creatively speaking.  I would walk into my sewing room but then wander out again.  Getting past that hurdle was difficult as I had a hard time focusing but what helped was sorting through my stash and organizing my bits and pieces.

What also helped was hand embroidery.  It seemed to still my anxiety about our global situation, and helped me focus on the tiny task at hand.  All the images of the virus led me to creating red embroidery circular patterns on grey felt circles.  I created 19 unique grey and red embroidered circles.

Of course, then something needed to be done with these creations.  Working towards joy, I decided they could be the centres of fun flowers.  I cut into some of hand dyed fabric to create the petals and then painted/dyed the background.

Since the embroidery was done on felt, when it was appliqued onto the background, the centres bump forward or 'pop up' which is a fun bonus!

I had too many embroidery samples for one project so stay tuned for the next one, on a similar theme.

 

sweet baby quilt

This project began without any particular destination.  I was working with scraps on hand, and tried to experiment with lights and darks, to come up with a pleasing design.

This hung, this way for quite some time.  I thought it o.k. but not great, and couldn't figure out what the problem was.  All the colours worked, sort of, but it just felt like a bit of mess.

Then I heard wonderful news, a baby girl was on her way.  This motivated me to attend to this project in a more directed way.  I decided to 'unpick' or for those of you who are uninitiated to this ancient sewing practice;  this means to pull apart all the seams that you already painstakingly made and begin anew.  I constructed this arrangement which felt much better.  Calmer, and yet still busy.  Bright but not overwhelming...

Of course, not ever able to leave well enough alone I not only decided to create prairie points (triangles all around the edge) but thought it might be a fun challenge to back the prairie points with this white satin I had on hand.  I wanted this quilt to be a tactile delight for the little one ....to be....  

The white satin proved to be a challenge, very hard to sew together all those raw edges, lots of fraying nightmares, and the wide white satin was very difficult to move around the corners.  No quilt police would find the end result acceptable, but I had high hopes that the baby wouldn't mind too much if the corners didn't  lie flat.

Once she was born, I was able to free motion quilt special messages to her in the large negative spaces.  She was born on a Sunday and so in this spot, it is written that 'Sunday's child is full of grace'.

Wherever I could, I free motioned wishes and hopes for her,  here I am wishing her sweet dreams.  The heart is appliqued with a blanket stitch in embroidery floss.

It is backed by a cotton in a rich blue, and the satin looks like a wide ruffle.

and here she is!!!

I am hoping that she will enjoy her fun, busy, less than perfect, labour of love.

 

Out for a Stroll

                                                           15.5" wide x 18" high . (framed)

This piece grew from a photograph I took of an elderly couple in my neighbourhood.  There seemed to be such a gentle warm companionship between them as they chatted together while making their way up the street, oblivious to their secret admirer.

I print the photo onto water soluble paper and then free motion stitch through silk organza.  The paper deteriorates with water and I find the semi deterioration of the paper speaks to the subject matter.

The figures were layered on top of a piece of cotton that I had hand dyed and then printed on top of with the red pattern. I left the edges of the cotton exposed (raw edge) but stitched along the periphery of the cotton.  I love fabric and the 'hand' of it and so wanted to make it clear that this work is of fabric by exposing the edge.  The work has been framed and is under non-reflective glass.

 

The Fallen

                                   

The Fallen

17" x 37"

Detail:  This work began on a hand dyed cotton cloth.  The only true colour is the first one.  I had thought to wait until I can get proper photographs taken by Sylvia Galbraith who always does such a wonderful job taking photos of my work.  However, due to COVID, I am not sure when I will be able to see her again so I thought I would post this now, to give you a sense of what I have been working on, with the hope of better photos to come.

                                               

 

Detail:  The shapes of the leaves were all inspired by actual leaves I picked up from my daily dog walking walk.  I traced them on to the cloth and then my fun began.  I love this detailed hand stitching work.  I feel like it is a bit like the work of Georges Seurat, the French post-impressionist painter.  He was well known for his style of pointillism.  Making little dots of paint colours with an incredible expertise in colour theory.  

Here is a detail from   Seurat's Parade de Cirque (1889) where you can see his images were created with tiny dots of colour.

                                                   

Detail:  I do not suggest for a moment that I have a handle on colour the way Seurat did.  In fact, I believe that I am slightly colour blind and so am always struggling with colour choices.  Nevertheless I muddle on.

Detail:  Since these photos were off in colour I had fun playing with the adjustment options, intensity, sepia, etc. which is why these images are so different.  When creating this work, I took advantage of the quilting lines to try and create movement.  A suggestion of the swirling fallen leaves.

Detail:  leaves are overlapping.

Detail ( I saturated the tones here)

Roadside

Fancy Meeting you Here

23.5 " x 18.5"

I created this piece from several different photographs I took while traveling in Africa.  Although my trip to Africa was many years ago, I still find that the photos draw me in, and invite inspiration.  I suppose that part of the reason is the 'otherness' was remarkable.  That's on the surface, but I feel that there is more to it than that.  How peaceful most appear to be.. I am not foolish and do understand that there are difficulties everywhere, and certainly the people of Tanzania and Rwanda have had no end of challenges. And yet, somehow, there was an equanimity there that I found remarkable.

Detail:  Hand dyed fabric with free motion machine stitching as well as hand embroidery.

This is another detail of the free motion.  The challenge for me it to create enough detail for interest while not transforming the portrait into a cartoon.  On this scale, (quite small) this is difficult since the work is on silk organza and cannot be undone.

most of the women we passed on the road carried supplies on their head.  It appeared as if people were always on their way somewhere, lots of pedestrians filled the roads.  People appeared unhurried but in constant motion.

One of my favourite books as a teenager was "Stranger in a Strange Land" and this was certainly my experience.  As I lay expectations upon expectations on myself and others, I envied the apparent simplicity and grace. 

Working with scraps....lots of them!

During this Pandemic, I have been spending a lot of time on my own, at home.  Not unlike many of you I am sure.  At first I made masks....lots of them....all from my stash.  I didn't feel comfortable buying or shopping.  When mask making began to feel old, I decided to 'tidy up'.  Its always a very good way to deal with my anxiety.  When things are in order, it makes me feel calmer.

Once I decided to tidy up, it made sense to tidy my scraps by making them into the same size.  I made them into 3 inch squares.  Not sure how I decided on this size. Generally I work very intuitively and this just seemed like a good size for the state that my scraps were in.  At the suggestion of a quilty friend, I started making 2 types of blocks.

Before I knew it I had 56 blocks.  more than enough for a queen size bed quilt.  I had never taken on a project of this size.  I had kept each block focused on a particular colour, and hoped to create a colour wheel in the lay out.  In this image, you can see that I also considered a black/grey/white checkerboard as a border but in the end I didn't think it worked.

Once all the blocks were sewn together I laid them out on my bed.  HUGE!  Given that I only used my stash, I was quite satisfied that it does give the sense of the colour wheel but I was overwhelmed at the thought of quilting such a large area.  typically I pride myself in doing every step myself in all my work, but this seemed to be too much for my little domestic Bernina, not to mention my shoulder.

Lucky for me, I live in a big city with lots of resources and a friend told me that Jeannie Jenkins had a long arm machine and was quilting for other people.  Jeannie was one of my very first teachers.  She taught a class called "Back off and Paint your own Quilt" which was fantastic.  So much fun!  She encouraged her students to create their own impressions on commercial fabric, to make their work unique.  I had never thought about changing the actual fabric before that class.  This led me on a long road of surface design and I have never looked back.  Thanks Jeannie!  She is also a master quilter and did a beautiful job putting this scrappy ensemble together.

The finished product!

View from above.  If you too are having some trouble getting very creative during these challenging times, why don't you try starting with a baby step or two. It has really helped me to get back into my studio.  At first though, I did not set out to make something specific.  In the end, I created a queen size quilt! I have never made anything this big.  It was just little iterative steps that led me to this result.  Perhaps not one of my most creative or unique projects, but I believe every step leads to another, and I am trying not to be so hard on myself.  Since this quilt, I have been able to be in my studio more, and be more experimental, so....stay tuned.

Mask Making

 With a heavy heart my most recent preoccupation is finding a good pattern to make masks.  These times are very challenging and as friends have pointed out, it is easy to be a good person in good, easy times, but much harder to stay on track during times such as these.

I resisted this activity for some time.  It seemed to me silly to make masks when I knew that I didn't really know how to make an effective mask, and I didn't want to be involved in a make work project.  But, as the time has gone on, and the news continued to be so disheartening, I 'pivoted' my thinking.  Now I am feeling that at least this is something that I can do.  It is so important to feel productive.

In my first few days of isolation at home, I couldn't focus on any activity.  I couldn't even walk into my sewing area.  I was restless and sad.  Making masks has given me the opportunity to use the skills and materials I have, to feel productive again, to have a focus.  For that I am grateful.  I am also grateful that I am in a position to do this. I am healthy, strong, have food in my beautiful home, and have the social supports through all the media at my finger tips.  This is a challenging time, but not nearly as challenging for me as for others.  I will continue to make masks until the day (hopefully soon) that they are no longer needed.