These three doors tell a story.
I began the quilt, Three Yellow Doors, in January of this year. (I posted a number of blogs about the early stages in January and February.) Then I set it aside as blog subject matter because I planned to enter it in the SAQA regional exhibit, TRIO.
I submitted the quilt; it was accepted by the juror, and now I am happy to show the completed work and talk about it more.
Right from the beginning I had a strong emotional attachment to this work. (That’s part of why it took a long time, as I struggled with getting the surface to communicate the emotional content I had in mind.) Here’s how I described it in my artist statement for the TRIO exhibit:
Three Yellow Doors is a visual autobiography built in the language of memory and dream. Near the end of the sidewalk, from a safe landing place, I can reconstruct my life through dwellings: the household of my childhood, the household of my married life, the household where I am now. I have placed them in the suggestion of a fairytale forest. Early in constructing this quilt, the building renderings were significantly more realistic, as I gave attention to accuracy in perspective and proportions. Only as I began to skew those elements, also adding transparent layers to push the homes further into the background, did the story begin to feel real. My friends the birds are with me in the foreground: faithful observers and messengers.
My experience creating this work involved creating a lot of images that ended up being largely obscured in the end. The background:
The houses were built as the sum of many individual collaged pieces.
As I suggested in my statement, it just didn’t feel right. (There were actually days in this work where I didn’t like it at all.) The emotional “Aha!” occurred when I started adding more elements and textures on top of the houses I had built:
I kept adding transparent shapes. Then a whitewash over most of the buildings. Then some grid lines. Then additional trees in the foreground.
Slowly, it began to feel right.
I am so pleased to know this work will travel to museums and galleries in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina for two years in the TRIO exhibit. That’s how stories fulfill their purpose: having an audience to hear/see them and think about their meaning.
. . .
One last invitation/reminder to visit the Artburst Boutique before the work changes out later this week. My quilts and works by Jennifer Steckare on display through September 3.
Visit Artburst.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
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