reEvaluating Drawings
These are two drawings done years ago, from one of my old sketchbooks.
The one above was drawn while looking at the bottom of a head of garlic. Take a look at a head of garlic and see the shapes at the root end. They are round and have a texture and look very interesting, at least to me. I changed the bulb into some sort underwater creature, and from there I made a quilt which I called Medusa. I blogged it a while ago.
This is a magnolia blossom. I never made a quilt out of this drawing, but I have always loved it.
So what is this about? I have been turning drawing around in my head and thinking about what I could do with it. Since I have been an avid quilter since 1981 I have been using my drawings as jumping off points for quilts. They had no intrinsic value other than a plan. How I insulted them!
Now I am reconsidering their importance.
Either of these two would or could be made into finished works. On paper or canvas, or as I did already for the top one, into fabric.
The thing about drawings is that there is no color, which is both good and bad. I love the line quality, or the 'hand', and wish that translated more directly into the edges of the cut fabrics. But the color takes over when I make them into quilts and they are altered so much that they are totally removed from that elegant drawn line.
And another thing I just realized...These drawings are ABSTRACT, which I never acknowledged before. Yes! A good thing for me to say out loud. Not exact replicas of the originals subjects. What that means to me is that I have added something from myself into the drawing, an interpretation, a point of view, something original. That has BIG VALUE.
Mel did you isolate part of a larger drawing of a Magnolia blossom drawing to make this drawing? I like the shapes, very non-representational.
ReplyDeleteHave you tried using only black, white and grey fabrics? Maybe that would help make the line more important once the drawing is turned into a quilt. Or use a gradation of only one color.
ReplyDeleteTotally off topic, but based on the garlic drawing, I'm pretty sure you've been touched by the Flying Spaghetti Monster's nooly appendage :-)
ReplyDeleteBUT, even though the color takes over in your quilts, the basis is the line - the abstract drawing that you turn in to a quilt. It is something you do so well. Without the line there is only color and no design.
ReplyDeleteI love the garlic drawing even better than I like the quilt. The little roots around the edge have a wonderful organic quality.
ReplyDeleteAre you still reading the undressed art? That book opened my eyes to alot of the reasons why I draw. For me I always have a sketch book near. And when doing nothing, like talking on the phone or watching tv I will be drawing absently on anything handy.An idea is half formed and then worked out bit by bit in daily doodles. At some point it finds its way into an actual "real" drawing and often becomes a final quilt. Your magnolia drawing is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteWhat if you did thin slivers of fabric mimicing the drawn lines, and then just placed them on one of your fabric gradations, using lots of contrast between figure and ground...?
ReplyDeleteThere is such a big difference between the realistic drawings you used to do (which lack life and joy) and the sketches you do for your quilts. The love of what you are doing just bursts off the page. I love these sketches. It will be really interesting to see where you go with your pencils!
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