My Latest...

Here's my latest masterpiece. I call it "Portrait of the Viewer as an Art Quilt, with Found Objects." Quite a departure from my usual flowers, gardens, and undersea scenes, isn't it? I started thinking about doing something like this after the June meeting of the FiberArts Northeast (FANE) group I belong to. Jane Davila was enlightening us about "conceptual art" and inviting us to create a piece for ourselves. Here is a quote by Sol LeWitt describing conceptual art, courtesy of Wikipedia:

In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.

You can read more of the article here.) I'm not sure this piece really qualifies as conceptual art, but I made it because I started thinking about the importance of how the viewer responds to and interacts with a piece. I wanted the viewer to have an impact on this piece, and see him/herself in it, just as the reader interjects his or herself into a novel or story. This way, the piece will change depending on who is standing in front of it, and what colors they are wearing (can you see a little of me and my camera?). In order to make the piece reflective, but with an imperfect reflection, I chose to include the shiny cardstock. Most of the other materials were found objects, from the dark, woven building material (I think it's Tyvek) to the metal mesh and the squashed bottle cap. It certainly has an industrial, gritty sort of look to it, doesn't it? I want to run it by the members of FANE at our meeting this Thursday (along with the last two pieces I finished) but I have about 3 places to be at the same time and my other half is out of town for the week! If only I had a clone!
Anyway, with the (near) completion of this piece (I still have to figure out how to mount it - maybe on a canvas), I feel like the month is off to a good start. All my scheduled library programs are finished for the summer, so my day can be much more flexible and less rushed. I can spend the afternoons with my two younger daughters doing fun summer things, and playing with my ideas for the sketchbook. Happy August!