Virginia Greaves

When I make a portrait, I typically add the background last & do something unrelated to the original picture. Unfortunately, with my latest piece, I have used so much of my energy on the face, now that it is done, I have hit a creative block. I do not know what to do for the shirt and background.

Here is what it looks like now with a few fabrics auditioned against it:

I know that blue, green, and purple are far enough away on the color wheel from yellow to give me some good contrast, but I also know that the choices have to be fairly dark to offset the hair and the neck. Nothing in my closet is jumping out at me though.

This is frustrating because spring break is almost upon me — so I won’t get any work done next week — and then I only have a short period of time to finish it completely before school is out for summer — and I don’t have any studio time.

I can either use one big piece for the background, something patterned (but not too much — I don’t want it to look like bad wallpaper),  or I can use strips — giving a more abstract feel. What to do, what to do . . . . .

This is what I have so far. The face is done — though I may still change the mouth — but I still have some work to do on the hair. I’m not sure about how the colors are working together — I may make some adjustments. But at this point, I’m going to finish it & then stand back from it & study it for a while. I knew that doing a blond would be challenging.

Using commercial fabrics has added an interesting complexity to my work that I didn’t expect. Sometimes, a fabric works great in the auditioning — and then bombs in the piece — because of the tightness & regularity of the pattern relative to the size of the pieces cut out for the face. I have been building a new face in the last few days — and have been playing with her mouth quite a bit this morning. I thought the in-process pictures would be interesting. (Keep in mind that all of these are taken on a flat table — so there is some camera distortion in these pics.) I always love to see the life grow under my fingers when I work.

This is the base laid out:

This is the face with a little more detail added:

Here I’ve added detail to the eye on the left:

And here I’ve completed the 2nd eye on the right:

This was one of the mouths that I did. I wasn’t happy with how it came out from the original pattern I drew, so I grabbed my Sharpie and scissors and started working away:

This is the mouth as it is now. I’m fairly happy with it — although I may change it when I make final adjustments:

Now I’m off to work on her hair. She is a blond — so this is a new challenge for me. I think I have it all in my stash though — amazing what you can find in that closet if you just search hard enough through the bins.

I am guilty of a disappearing act. I have neglected writing on my blog because I have been working diligently on my latest piece, Shoshanna. I quilted it very closely, about 1/4 inch, and given its size and some problems with my machine (darn that Viking), it took me a long time to finish it. I do have a picture of it when the quilting was done:

It is incredibly wavy! I wasn’t worried — however, I knew that I would save myself a lot of headache if I added the binding after blocking it. It is always amazing to me how easily it flattens when wet.

Then when I went to add the binding, I decided to use the glue technique that I had seen Sharon Schamber use on her YouTube tutorial. Of course I forgot most of what I had seen and only used the glue to attach the binding to the back, but it is a HUGE timesaver and relief to my poor, noncallused fingers. Next time, I’ll try it all her way. When I was done, I did have to soak the quilt yet again to remove the glue (which is water soluble) — and block it AGAIN — but it is finally done — and I’m glad that I used this technique for the binding.

I have finished pictures on my website HERE.

By the way, I really struggled with a name for this piece. My work has changed from the style I had two years ago so I didn’t feel comfortable giving it the name Faces in Cloth with a number — that series has really developed into a body of work for me. I am also uncertain that using a person’s given name is wise — I wouldn’t want to provide too much access to a person’s personal life. The model’s husband suggested that I use the Hebrew intrepretation of her name — an idea which I really like and I think gives more insight into the feeling of the piece.

The other reason for my disappearing act is that I have many opinions about the economy — which perhaps spill over into politics — and I do not think this to be the right forum for that. I have friends — both conservative and liberal — and I find them all dear to me. This blog is not meant to be polarizing, and I do not personally like when I read the blog of an artist that allows her political views to take over. Artistry with political messages are fine — but I know that most read my blog for my art, not my political views. If I want to share those, I’ll start another blog — and then you can subscribe to that one separately or not. (I’m not to that point — yet.) Sometimes it’s important to know when to keep your mouth shut. IMHO