Monday, January 01, 2007

The Old Man Gazed Into the Heavens




I chose the first line from the book "The Orphan Boy" by Tololwa M. Mollel. It's an African tale but the man depicted is not African. The first line reads: "As he had done every night of his life, the old man gazed deep into the heavens."
I used a photo that was altered in Photoshop. I was fortunate enough to find a black fat quarter in my stash that was covered with faint dark gray stars and used that for the background fabric. I placed a new moon in the sky and added highlights around the old man, moon and tree sillhouette below with Shiva paint sticks. Angelina fibers in the sky added sort of a wispy effect to the sky and moon somewhat resembling the Milky Way. I found tiny gold star-shaped sequins in my bead stash and placed some of them around in the sky, too.Little quilting was done other than over the Angelina fibers and around some of the old man's features.



I felt that this piece needed something yet andalthough no one had mentioned it in their commentsand suggestions I placed a walking stick in the lower left hand corner. I used permanent marker to darken the stick so that it, too, would appear to pick
up the moon's light.

4 comments:

Cherie in Del Mar said...

Wonderful contrast! Very convincing night sky. I love your old man. Is it hand dyed fabric, or painted? He really glows as if lighted by the moon. good interpretation.

Cherie

laura west kong said...

Great example of chiaroscuro (Italian art term for really dark darks and light lights). Look it up on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiaroscuro) and you'll see how similar yours is in the use of darks and lights. The lights glow against the extra dark background.

Nice embellishing on the milky way. The Angelina is so wispy and delicate.

I wouldn't change a thing.
laura

Roberta Ranney said...

Hi Jan - This piece is one I want to look at for a while. The old man is well depicted and the night sky seems so real - not the simple moon and stars I often see. Your use of angelina fibers is really good in making the sky special as well as your judicious use of stars.

And I got to learn the term "chiaroscuro" from Laura. Thanks, Laura. She's right - this piece glows.

Roberta

Cynthia Ann Morgan said...

Hi Jan, Wow! I love this piece! lights against dark darks...very dramatic. The piece has a feeling of joyful wonder and makes me feel good!

Cynthia