Collaboration

Third in Abstract Series

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I met with Leisa over a week ago. As I last mentioned, I had finished quilting our 2nd collaborative piece and I offered it back to her for additional changes. We decided that it was done and that I would bind it — which I started yesterday. Last week, I spent a glorious week of cutting and fusing our 3rd abstract piece. Leisa was out of town and I wanted to have something to give her when she returned this week.

She asked in that meeting if we could extend out the edges on this piece. It was already drafted but after talking about it, we decided to rotate it and extend the two sides — which would become the top and bottom.

I started with the whites and yellows. In retrospect, this piece has a lot of yellow and I wish I had toned it down. This is its original orientation. It’s on my drafting table that’s covered with an ironing mat. I have to stand on a ladder and hold the camera above the piece to attempt a picture. Moving it to the design wall doesn’t work well for my process.

in process yellow

Then I added the reds.

in process red

And then the blues. I rather like it at this point.

in process blue

Then I added the black and changed the orientation. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was completely flummoxed. There are several things that changed in the piece when I changed in the orientation — some of the shapes began to take on new and unintended meanings.

My first reaction was to take off the black and replace it with something else — but Leisa wants it just like this. I hope she paints it. I know she intends to cut strips in the bottom — maybe also the top. It’s just very striking color wise. Maybe that isn’t such a bad thing. It still has a lot of transformation until it becomes its final self.

in process black

ad;lkfja;skdjf

Collaboration

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Yesterday I met with Leisa. She still has plans for the small piece we did first so I didn’t get it back — but I took her the larger abstract piece that is second in the series — now that it’s quilted — and she liked it! I thought she would want to embellish it but she made an excellent point about restraint and knowing when to stop. We are both happy with it as it is — so I will add a binding and sleeve and consider it done.

quilted abstract #2

I’m strangely drawn to the thought of an almost completely machine stitched binding. I’ve only done this one other time but it seems apropos to the piece — and has the plus of eliminating a large part of the hand sewing.

I have finished drafting a third piece — I picked out fabrics today — and Leisa and I talked about a fourth piece which will be a whole cloth that we will cut into strips and otherwise playfully manipulate. I have learned so much in this collaboration.

I really didn’t know how to work in groups until graduate school — and I was really forced to do it there. We each gave our best to create the best collective effort. Now it’s easy — with the right people that know how to do it too. People with control issues don’t work well in collaborations. It has to be a give and take. You don’t always get your way but you learn from the other person and respect their opinion. You don’t worry about getting your way — you work on finding a solution that works for both of you. It’s a beautiful theory — it’s a shame that governments don’t work this way.

The Ongoing Collaboration of Ginny and Leisa and their love affair with fabric, texture and Leisa’s fixation with car washes!

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Ginny and I met up at Starbucks today to do the exchange of car wash quilt #2. I turned the work over to her with some trepidation; I find it is always so intimidating when you are sharing both creative process and technique with someone…what if she judged me (my vision/skill) and found me lacking? I had spent most of last weekend happily stitching away, building up the surface with a variety of stitches and was truly hoping she would be pleased with my interpretation. I had worked feverishly, using the free motion machine embroidery that would enhance and embellish the pieced fabric, choosing carefully with Ginny in mind. However, as I worked away, I mulled over that I was feeling a little….bored! After much thought, it finally came to me that the problem was that there were NO 3D elements!

I am definitely an artist who needs a LOT of texture, dimension, and most certainly the tactile to be a part of my works. Throwing caution to the wind, I pulled from my varied collection of nubbly, velvety, netty fabrics until I found the right textures to enhance the piece. This was no easy task deciding to do so; Ginny makes really technically perfect quilts that fit neatly into the precise definition of a quilt and the base of this one was so lovely, her use of color and the choices of fabrics so spot on, and the skill with which she cuts and places the fabrics so perfectly daunting, I really was frozen with fear at “messing it up”. However, I knew that she could “take it” as I am finding her to be a woman with the ability to roll with the punches and be open to see what happens! Whew! She was happy with the end result, and now it has gone back to her to use her mad quilt skills on.

HOWEVER! I still have quilt #1 in my hot, little hands and have dastardly plans for what we thought was a sampler-type piece. In Leisa, she must trust!

We also talked about getting together a proposal for an exhibition…this is shaping up to be something truly inspiring and gorgeous and we must expose it to the public!

Here are a few photos of my work on the piece….though as many of you know, it is near impossible to capture the extremely intricate nature of cloth, stitching, and texture in this form. You’ll all just have to come and see the works in the show!

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IMG_4837       IMG_4838

Ruminations on Collaboration

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It’s been so wonderful embarking on this creative adventure with Ginny! Collaborations stretch individuals in a variety of different ways. I also feel like I am making a new friend…and one can never have too many of those. Especially artists. We face a lot of rejection and need others to frequently bolster our self-esteem and pat us on the back!

Specifically for me, it will be a great lesson in getting better at sharing. Ginny has such great ideas and mad technical skill; I have much to learn from her dedication, sense of direction and focus. I am a strong-willed artist used to working mostly on my own, with a great passion and excitement about what I do, so giving up control for someone else’s idea, and staying focussed on ONE idea, can be a challenge for me. Ginny has expressed the scariness of tackling the larger format and abstract nature of my car wash photos we are using as a departure for the concept, so that will be the hurdle she will overcome through this process. We will both surely grow from this experience!

As we pass these pieces back and forth and engage in creative conversations about them, we will both have to think in new ways. I hope you, the readers, will gain something from our experience!

Collaboration 1 -- full

Struggling with Abstract

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This week I met Leisa Rich at Abernathy Arts Center. We picked up our work from the Georgia Artists show that closed last week and spent about an hour talking about our abstract piece. She has added a bunch of stitching and it looks amazing.

Collaboration 1 -- full

I love the vinyl on the piece — it makes it look a lot like water. She took these pictures. I admit to having a problem photographing it. The vinyl is very reflective and cannot take direct light. But I was so pleased at the different life that it has now taken on.

These are detail pics.

Collaboration 1 -- detail1

Collaboration 1 -- detail2

Collaboration 1 -- detail3

 

I can’t get over how much its character has changed. I love it so much more than what I would have done with it.

She handed the piece back to me and we talked about what to do next with it. We’re considering making a larger but more realistic piece that this would fit into — but I’m having a problem working out value problems. There is so much huge contrast in this section that it’s difficult to resolve the focal point issue with the entire piece. Obviously the focal point should be the abstract. I’m still working out in my head how to accomplish that in light of this other idea.

And while I was waiting on Leisa to do her part last weekend, I started another abstract piece — a much larger one — and to be honest, I’m struggling. I can’t rely on my usual practice of logic to determine where colors go. I usually have no problems turning my value studies into colors — but that system doesn’t work very well here. It was an issue with the small piece, but I was able to work around it. It’s harder to do in a piece 45″ wide.

I’m telling myself that there are no wrong answers. It can be whatever I want it to be.

Right now I’m marking all of the sections on my pattern with colors. I’ll hopefully finish that later today so I can move on to picking fabrics. Maybe I’ll even come up with an excuse to take a trip to Red Hen!

And let’s face it — it’s summer. There are numerous distractions to take me from something that isn’t holding my attention very well. Even in art we have to slog through difficult tasks sometimes.

One last thing — Leisa has asked if she can be a guest writer on this blog to which I happily agreed. Given that our work is a collaboration, I definitely think that her point of view should be shown as well. I’m looking forward to having her contribution.

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