Better late than never apparently, here is my offering. It did take a lot longer than I expected and it has been a very difficult month, so I am just glad to have it done at all. The texture is in the scales. All the side scales are individual pieces fused to the wadding then held in place permanently by the quilting. The quilting I did on the longarm flicking the overlapping scales out of my way as I went. I loved doing the quilting because it went quickly and I could see the texture building as I went. The binding is also made of many single scales overlapping.
The first part I made was the tail. It's curve is entirely due to being cut on the bias and then stretched as I stuffed it. The stuffing was inherited and so very important to me. It was great when people visited and picked up the tail, they were all keen to see the rest of the beast. The time consuming part was the wings. Stitching turning and stuffing the bones took over 5 hours per wing. I hadn't appreciated how fiddly they were going to be. To give you an idea of scale the rectangular part is about A3, twice journal size.
My idea was to show how the brain fills in details you can no longer see. The rectangle is what you can really see, just up close scales, but you know there were teeth, claws, tail and wings in there somewhere. For me this is a very abstract piece, but as I had so much fun with it I bet I will try more abstract pieces in future. There are more pictures and words on my blog.
Many times it is more effective to leave details out for the brain to fill in. I think it makes the art more interesting when you leave some things to the viewers' imaginations and don't spell everything out for them. Kind of draws people in as participants in your vision.
ReplyDeleteGreat textures and I like the contrast of shapes between the curvy tail, the rectangular body and the fan-shaped wings. Very intriguing piece to look at.