Underwhelmed- UPDATED
17x13.5"The camera makes this seem brighter and more colorful than it really is.
It's dull as the gray winter sky. Good title, but it probably won't ever reach the stage where it needs a title.
Usually I don't denegrate my own work, but YUCK! Low contrast, low value desaturated colors are not for me. My aim was to use colors similar to this example:
I know where I went wrong. Too many darks predominate in my composition.
The heavy square is too much. And I don't have enough of the soft range of greenish gray.
O well. Am I gonna fix it? Nyet. This isn't school and I won't flunk. Sometimes its enough to know why something doesn't work. If I finish it, it will feel like punishment. Art shouldn't be a punishment.
Later that day...
I kept looking at the gray top and decided that I liked the composition, so I chose colors that I like better, lime, orange and purple and then made it again...
Now I am happy.
Your comments are helpful but I don't believe I have to finish every thing I start, and especially since I can easily take apart the first one and use the fabric for something else.
Cat box liner perhaps?
I like it! and totally agree with your visions of a winter sky - it is like that here in Germany, too. I can see what you mean with your criticism but I think you´re over-critical. If it´s not too much of a punishment for you: keep going. I´m sure it will turn out nicely like alle your other work. It makes a great change from the bright colours, which I love very much, too. I follow your blog regularly and admire your pieces and your outlook on life! Give the winter sky another chance!
ReplyDeleteI just love this piece. It is still a cold, gray winter up here and your quilt wafts a ghost of a promise of spring. It is such a bit of peace and hope.
ReplyDeleteYour problem is you are a very upbeat, sunny, colorful personality. These colors just don't do it for you and probably never will unless you decide that it is a challenge you just have to take on. You work best in the wildly colorful colors because they are what you love.
ReplyDeleteThis piece is not my favorite either because I love the bright colors found in most of your work. Doesn't mean this isn't good.
What if you used it as the background for some figures made in your brights?
ReplyDeleteokay, it did wow me...but if its not rocking your boat then let it be.
ReplyDeleteCould I trade you for it? Give me a size and I'll send you a bright the same size.
ReplyDeleteUse it as a background for a mixed media piece. Throw caution to the wind and add lots of STUFF. Might be fun to play. It's always fun to play!
ReplyDeleteOr you can use it as a dust rag. :-)
Twinnie Susan
That is exactly how I feel when I try to do something in the grayer color range. I have sold several pieces like that however so somebody likes it. What really works is a few grayer pieces in a brighter composition. It makes the clear colors sing even more.
ReplyDeleteI love your phrase "to finish it would feel like punishment". I look at some of my "yuks" and torture myself with the finish/don't finish head game.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this piece does not reflect you. Can we all get together and have big bonfire and put all our "yuks" out of their misery?
my 2cents...........Nothing wrong with the colors. Just to to many small pieces. It's just to busy.
ReplyDeleteWhen I come to the "no more sewing" stage and a salvage operation is called for, I get out the Cascade for discharging, the dyes and the textile paints.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought.
Could you embellish with threads, beads, buttons??? Fuse on a couple of zingy highlights?
ReplyDeleteOf course it could also become a backing, as in "before & after".
~Barbara in Seattle~
Melody, you are a hoot!
ReplyDeleteNoble experiment, but like you, I say move on when you don't like what you have. FWIW I think the colors are beautiful, but I think the problem is contrast--lack of. If some of the lights had been nice chalky almost whites I think you'd 'a had something!
ReplyDeleteWe don't have to finish everything. When I reach a feeling that I hate sometime, I stop, put it in my closet and let it be. Sometimes I'll come back to it, and see something I didn't see at the time. Quite often I will reach a point that I hate or lose faith in a project. Then I take a break and like it. For what it's worth I like your quiet piece. I'd encourage you to *not* cut it up. But if you want to destroy it - that's up to you as the artist.
ReplyDeleteYou like the composition, so why not put some paint on it to provide the contrast you feel it lacks?
ReplyDeleteThe brighter piece works. Now use your photoshop in a gray scale on both and you will SEE WHY the first one didn't work. Had nothing to do with color. Had everything to do with tone.
ReplyDeleteI just heard from Popeye. He says he is insulted that you would use something you don't like in his litter box.
ReplyDeleteBut he'd consider BonTon 4.
Coud be interesting to overdye it!
ReplyDeleteMelody, I love your blog. I love your bright colors. I visit every day, but almost never comment. Today I want to say that I think art is about experimenting. And the nature of experiments is that we won't like some of them--which teaches us a lot about what works and what we like. Experiments are really valuable. And when we know we don't like what happens, we can drop that and go on. I think experimenting means we are alive and still growing.
ReplyDeleteThis is what I tell myself. No need to finish something I don't like. And it's really irrelevant whether other people like it or not, because experiments are the artist's learning process.
Mary G in Chicago
Funny, I am not a cool, drab color person at all, but today, that is the piece which speaks to me. I find it 'quiet', it recedes, and feels 'peaceful'.
ReplyDeleteFunny that. So they both have striking effects and value in my eyes.
Love the colorful rendition, indeed! Right up my alley! I've also enjoyed your blog, so I've decided to tag you! I'd love to know more about you!
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting juxtaposition...I like the bright version too...what I appreciate is you giving yourself permission not to finish...someone wise said "it's just fabric", but I admit that I have trouble leaving a project that isn't working for me. I love what Mary said in her post too. I need to learn to experiment and move on. Thanks for sharing...I am learning from your work!
ReplyDeletethe second one is you!
ReplyDeleteCat Box Liner?
ReplyDeleteMy kitten says he'd be honoured to 'go' on such a fine liner...
He also claims that BonBon4 would be far too bright and distracting. A cat needs calm colours to concentrate on such important business...
;)