Have you had the wonderful experience of being by a window, relaxed, and just staring out for a while?
Sometimes you plan it. Have a cup of coffee with you to sit a spell.

Sometimes it just happens. You walk by. Something catches your eye. You are immersed in the scene unfolding.

I enjoy working with photos that have emotional pulls, and I especially like this photo of a window.

This is the photo transferred to muslin. I’ll stitch it into the final quilt. I have used this photo several times. My sister snapped it with her phone in her home, and I have manipulated it some in Photoshop.

Recently, as I have created works combining evocative photos with other surface design, I have found myself describing the subsurface activity with a lot of color and pattern. I’ve enjoyed that. Now I am challenging myself for the next few pieces to address the emotional portion with as few pieces as possible.

Where to go next?

The other day as I was percolating this new work on the back burner, this piece of fabric popped into my head. I started it last month at my local surface design group get-together. I like the way it could work with the photo.

Then I got the idea for a tree branch – a way to connect the parts of the composition. Somehow it will cross the blue patterned portion and go into the window, or across the window.

I’ve also used trees in my work before, and I am trying to teach myself NOT to trust what I think they look like from my memory. When I draw a tree branch without looking at a real one, there are things I know I do wrong. Trees are deceptively simple– we have all looked at them for years and think we know what they look like. But, the actual configuration of a real branch is probably different from the one you have inside your head.

I went out in the yard and photographed several branches. One had fallen on the ground. Some were parts of the elm tree outside my studio. The best were from the peach tree in our backyard. It’s now pretty empty of leaves, and it has nice angular limbs.

I took the photo into PhotoShop and simplified it. I will not use this as a photo transfer, but as a pattern for stenciling. I envision the branch being semi-transparent across the blue and across the window.

Then, just this morning as I was reading, the final component came to me. Words. Thoughts. Poetic phrases through the window, filling the piece, enough so that they make their presence known, but subtle enough not to detract from the rest.

I haven’t figure out my working method yet. But somehow this will be part of transforming the blue fabric into something richer, more layered  and with more emotional texture.

The wheels are turning. But, that’s all I’ve got on this one for now.

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I have a bowl of candy by our front door. We do not normally get trick or treaters in our neighborhood. But we would surely welcome them.  I hope you have ways of enjoying this delightfully imaginative holiday – a chance for hospitality and good will that kids can remember for years.

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If you are in the mood for some browsing and would like to see other works I’ve created that explore memories and stories, please visit my website Gallery of Journeys and Stories. HERE

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Finally, for folks in the Central Florida area, please be sure to put the FALL FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS DELAND on your calendar. November 20-21. Downtown DeLand, 150+ artists. Always a great show. I’ll be exhibiting. See you there! fallfestivaloftheartsdeland.com

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

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