I really felt that this piece DIDN'T need anything, so I scratched my head for a while while it hung on my studio wall. 30 days is a long time to stare at a piece of fabric and I kept waiting for it to speak to me. But it remained remarkably quiet. The ideas I had I felt were too literal and would steer the piece in a way that I didn't want to go. Eventually I decided the best course was to do an abstract paint roller discharge on the fabric to bring some light areas into it. My first attempt was a bust. I guess the Soft Scrub I was using was weak as nothing happened. After trotting off to the store for a fresh bottle, the next day I tried again, using a stamp with a meandering pattern. Well, another less than effectual result. I was able to get the darker colors to discharge, but the golden yellow was staying put. I really wanted to accentuate the flow of the dying so I decided that I would change tack and go for another kind of contrast and use some black Jacquard Neopaque with a credit card and put in some sketchy marks across the fabric. I was pleased with the outcome, but on the last row a blob appeared and when I tried to scrape it off...ACK!... a big streak. At this point I was beginning to feel like I was three strikes down. That little nagging voice inside me said that I had really messed up this beautiful piece of fabric, that I should just give up on surface design, that I was a lousy artist, that I should quit the group. But that little streak turned out to be serendipity. I stood back to see just how bad it was, and well, I kind of liked it. I quickly put more streaks in, and was pleasantly surprised that it was just what my weak little sketchy marks needed to pump them up a bit. So once again I learn the lesson of persistence...
I now have my second piece of fabric in hand, again dyed by Jacque, and am thinking on this one as well. I am looking forward to the lessons this particular piece of cloth might teach me. :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment