Challenge 16: Fire or Ice

Guest Hostess - Tina Marie Rey   

Theme or Technique - You will use the following design concept to create one of two quilts (or two for those with extra time on their hands!)  Based on these two words - FIRE or ICE.

Design Concept - Your design concept is a very simple one, it is IMAGINATION.

You are to use your imagination to create a quilt that looks like fire or ice without actually looking like flames or ice cubes.  Sound confusing??? Well, I want you to get the feeling of what these words stir up in your head - fire is hot, what supplies do you have that look hot?  Like it could burn you... And Ice is so cold; also cold enough to burn but yet isn’t there a crisp beauty to it too? 

Here are some simple steps to help your imagination along to interpret a word into an abstract feeling.

1. Close your eyes. (Wait till you are finished reading the directions first)  Then see a fire in your head, or an ice cube or ice floating on the water - what do you see? Think of colors, shapes and lines.  How do you feel = what emotions does it evoke?

2. Get a piece of paper and write down all the words that you can think of that help describe the fire or ice.  Write down all the words that you can think of at all about your word.

3. Check out the following artwork to see what it brings out in you.

4. Just run into your sewing room and without thinking too much about how to assemble it (that is the last step in imagination) just think about what fabrics, embellishments and such fit into your vision of the word you have selected.

Now you can start putting it all together to create that vision you have IMAGINED in your head!

Due - Saturday, Noon EST, 5 January 2008

Discussion - The following is included for informational purposes only:

Many artists take a word and abstract it. They draw on a feeling they get from that word. I wanted to help you all use your imagination to think hard about how you think about the words we hear and the things we look at on a daily basis.

http://1972music.com/2007/12/17/abstract-painting-abstract-what-does-the-word-mean/   --- A little discussion on abstract art and interpretation.

Sample Artwork:

John Bennington -  http://www.johnbennington.com/PAINTINGS/blue_caves.html

Steven Dix - http://www.stevendix.com/images/paintings/bt.jpg

Carolyn S. Goodridge - http://www.abstractpaintings.com/images/Wayfarer-The-Journey-Begins.jpg

Elizabeth Hack - http://www.elizabethhack.com/wavex10panel.html

Paula Militaru - http://pws.cablespeed.com/paulamilis/art3.html

 
Lastly: I just wanted to explain why I chose to only give you a choice between two themes, fire or ice - because sometimes we just overcomplicated a simple thing.  You now only have a choice to make between two objects, and these two objects are the eternal opposite of each other. You will be drawn instantly to one image over the other.  They other reason I gave you only one of two choices is so that you can see how many different artists can approach the same word, and come up with many different pieces of art, but yet be a cohesive body of work as well.  Good luck and have fun!