Working as a textile artist provides lots of opportunities to create layers. I enjoy physical layers – collaging one thing on top of another – as well as story and content layers.

I completed “Entering Unknown Stories’ about a week ago. I was reviewing it in my “done” pile today. I was pleased that I incorporated several different ways of showing-what’s-behind into this work.

Transparent Fabric – There are two birds in this quilt, and each was created by painting transparent acrylic on sheer fabric, then collaging the cut-out bird onto the quilt surface. They are opaque enough to be prominent, but they are also transparent to allow some of the background to be visible through their bodies.

Transparent Paint glaze – In this section of the house, I painted a glaze (acrylic paint diluted with medium) of blue to define the interior of the structure. At the top, by the red roof, you can see the effect.

To the left of the roof, the trees are shades of gold. They cross over the wall to inside the house. Those same trees show through the blue glaze that begins just under the red roof. The complementary colors – the blue over gold – allows the trees beneath to almost create a glow.

Overlapping – In the trees, I worked to create the effect of close-up and far away

I used the same silkscreen stencil to print all these trees. But the ones in the foreground are showing with full-intensity paint. The ones further away have been positioned to peek through the foreground and are less intense.

Physical cut-outs I am drawn to architectural elements – especially doors and windows.

A compelling photo – The beginning inspiration for this work was the photo of looking through the iron gate.

I was intrigued with the way the photo draws you in, to see what’s in there behind the iron gate. (And I remember feeling that way when I shot the photo, in a city garden in downtown Natchez, Mississippi.) Framing photos with interesting foreground and something behind provides thought-provoking imagery.

This process of looking at a photo for meaning – I don’t mean to stick this on at the end as an afterthought. In every work that involves some layers of meaning, there has to be a starting place. The layered images I seek to create have to mean something. Or they have to stir up some kind of emotion or memory for me. This provides purpose for all of the technical layer-creation that will come.

This was a quilt that evolved as I developed it in my studio. Much of it I planned: the photo looking through the iron gate, the printed trees, the printed water photos, the leaves, and the inclusion of colorful quilt blocks within the body of the image. But, after I had created that much, it just wasn’t done. Working to add more depth and layers of meaning seemed to take the work where it was intended to go.

If you would like to see the completed work or find out more information about this piece, please visit my website HERE.

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

BLOG POSTS  - once a week:  If you would enjoy receiving blog posts by e-mail,  please subscribe here:  I post and send by e-mail each Sunday evening. BLOGS-BY-EMAIL

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: If you enjoy more detailed behind-the-scenes stories, as well as FIRST LOOKS at new works and members-only discounts, I hope you’ll become a Studio Insider.  You’ll hear from me about once a month.  NEWSLETTER