Another Bridge…part 1

bridge   [brij]  noun, verb,bridged, bridg·ing, adj  –noun

1. a structure spanning and providing passage over a river, chasm, road, or the  like.                    or,

2. a connecting, transitional, or intermediate route or phase between two adjacent elements, activities, conditions, or the like.

I think of Life as made up of a series of bridges that are connected by islands of being.  The islands are solid, stable–what we’ve become;  and the bridges are our growing–fluid, changing, in a state of becoming.   That’s my philosophical thought for today.

I started out years ago doing patchwork and quilting in a rather traditional way…I had my reasons,  but I soon found I got so tired of a pattern after just a couple of them and seldom could I complete an entire bed quilt of 25-48 blocks…I was lucky to be able to finish a baby quilt.  So I concentrated on making wall quilts, which was a lot better.  I started collaging in fabric, creating a series I called “Wish I Were Here”:

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 I love traveling, going someplace new and seeing it with that heightened awareness being in a new place brings.  You can catch details and patterns you have a tendency to miss once a place becomes familiar and I want to capture as much of that as I can-especially since my time in this area is limited.   I hurry out before sunrise just to see the golden pink glow the sun casts on everything in those first few moments and keep going until I can sit and gaze at the stars in the peace of night.

Once I’m home again, I study the photos I’ve taken and find what meshes with my memories and the details I remember.  These are what become part of my artwork.

 

Another Bridge…part 2

Soon I began to create my own fabric and I started a period that became the basis of my Urban Artifaks/fiber series.  These were loosely based on ancient stonework and other patterns or rhythms I observed and were hugely influenced by a couple cruises we took to Mexico and the Caribbean.  

 

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The fabric was my take on the way the weather wore through decades and layers of paint.  I dyed, painted, stamped, stenciled, bleached, and any other way I could abuse the fabric in layer after layer of color and pattern-I even used house paint and fingernail polish!

So now, I again stand on one side of a bridge looking at the other side and wondering…I’d like to learn to create collages using paper, fabric, paint, and maybe even encaustic with wax.  I love the complex patterns and depth they can create…like a journey within each composition.

And my mind is churning again…

OK, I’ll shup up now.