I’ve been inspired in the past few weeks to revisit the idea of a nostalgic neighborhood, the kind one sees in a picture, causing you to say, “Oh yeah. I remember that.”
I created this imaginary neighborhood from a montage of house photos I’ve collected. They were never actually one neighborhood, and I never lived in a place that looked quite ike this. But I love the feel of the families cramped together in one block. I envision bustling comings and goings of all kinds of families.
My vision is for this to maintain a childlike simplicity in the rendering. So, I began by painting some colorful fabrics for the houses.
I assembled some houses.
Then I lined them up in a row, as in my reference photo.
Nothing. I got nothing. Whatever appealed to me in the original had been lost in the translation to simplified shapes as applique.
It felt like it needed more elements. First, compositional elements – more varied things to add to the layout. Second – content elements. Something more to create meaning – the nostalgic tug one gets from revisiting the old neighborhood.
I wondered: what about people?
Then I wondered: what about people that aren’t quite real, like paper dolls?
Working out those possibilities is what I’ve been doing this weekend.
I put together a rough composition in PhotoShop, working out how to slightly cut up and rearrange the houses, adding a family and some other color blocks.
(The solid blocks in this composition will be filled with pattern. Something dark blue for the sky, and bright leaf patterns where it is shown a solid green.)
I’ve started creating some paper doll people.
Now, I am beginning to feel something from this. The creation of the people as static paper dolls adds a sense of unreality to the memory. They seem to fit the real-but-not real houses. I am beginning to develop some patterns in the fabric that I can imagine being developed into the final.
I look forward to visiting this old neighborhood.
. . . .
And one more paper doll project: I submitted my donation quilt to SAQA for the annual SAQA fundraiser beginning next week, September 11. As a young girl I was fascinated with the unattainable glamour depicted by these paper dolls. I enjoyed using them to create my donation piece.
If you enjoy looking at lots of interesting artwork and bidding on it, please visit the SAQA auction. Anybody can bid. It’s fun. And it benefits SAQA global exhibits.
For all of us: focus each day on the good that needs to be done in the world.
Be part of doing it.
Thank you for reading.
I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
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