Wall Drawing v4 (c) Ayn Hanna, 36"x44" Textile Painting (cotton fabric, cotton thread)
My Wall Drawing textile painting is nearing completion. By photographing the progress of this piece along the way, it has helped me to evaluate “the next move” with it and to see it more objectively, giving me a chance to step back away from it, and gain the distance to see it from another perspective.
It wasn’t until I saw the piece on the computer screen that I noticed A. how much the vertical “stripey-ness” pattern of the tan fabric really overwhelmed the rest of the composition and B. that there is really a lot going on in this piece – very busy composition with few areas for the eye to “rest”. (Hmmm, perhaps this is indicative of how many things I am juggling in my life right now?) It was clear to me that I needed to do something to break up the vertical stripey-ness and also try to develop some rest areas within the busy composition. So, the result was that I started cutting away more of the stripey fabric and allowing some broader quieter fields of green to emerge. I think it helps bring the piece together and it’s now pretty close to being finished.
When I’m creating a work based on a dream or memory, this is how I tend to work – start with an initial design idea/technique to explore and then dive in, letting the piece evolve naturally by intuitively checking in along the way with what it is becoming, and what feels right to do with it to complete the work of art. It’s a dance with the piece itself, sometimes it directs me and sometimes I direct it and together, we create a finished piece. I do often start with some image in my head of what the finished piece will be, but most of the time, the finished piece is quite different when it’s done than the image I had in mind when I started. And I’m fine with that, because the wonder and interest in making ART for me lies in the journey and the process. If the finished image is too all planned out when I start a piece, I wouldn’t have any interest in “producing” it. The intuitive development of the finished piece through the play time between initial idea and finished image is what I am drawn to in my art. This is an integral part of my creative process.
What methods do you use to get new perspective on a piece as you are working?
Do you start with a finished image in mind and if so, does the final piece reflect that or does it morph into something else along the way?
This is amazing! Fun to see the progression!