Friday, August 11, 2006

My 500th Post


I just noticed this is the 500th time I have posted- it does not seem so long. I also meant to notice my 60,000th visitor but that has also been and gone.

I have started putting in the stitching to what i am temporarily calling " all the sweet perfumes of Arabia..."- it is an allusion to the Lady Macbeth scene in the play of the same name by Shakespeare ( i did this play four years running- my last three years of high school and then in English literature at University, however this and the witches Double double toil and trouble-fire burn; and cauldron bubble, are about the only things that hang in my memory except ofcourse the plot ) . I am always amazed at how much stitching changes a thing. The unstitched spaces will probably be hand stitched. I like combining machine and hand stitching.

Debra asked what i meant by Alternative Visual Tradition- it was a phrase I picked up out of my previous post that was reviewing a book which discussed visual hapticity in relation to film- it said that visual hapticity was something more commonly associated with the alternative visual tradition- which included weaving and embroidery ( and other things) and by extension no doubt quilting. I thought it was a neat phrase as so many quilters/quilt artists and textile artists are desperate to be part of the mainstream art world or "the" visual tradition ( though it is splintered in so many directions that to say mainstream is not a very accurate description)- to be practising in an alternative tradition can be played up and used- as something desirable - we need a spin doctor LOL. Another aspect of this is I like textiles for what they are and the more I think about it, that is what is important about the way I make things- I don't necessarily want to make paintings or visual images- although I do work with images-i like what happens when I work with cloth/fabric and stitching and combining cloth for effect, and it is part of the reason I have returned to hand stitching- that was how I started - it feels right to use the things I have accrued and to use the things I started with together.

5 comments:

Debra said...

Thank you for the explanation. I read that post. Got to the word "haptic" and stopped reading. (needed and still need the dictionary). Some times I have such a lazy mind.

Hope your virus in improving.

Karoda said...

I'm glad Debra asked the question, and now that you've explained it, I have a new phrase to work into my position of explaining why I like the word "quilt" versus anything else in my pursuit of art.

Going to go look up hapticity (could come in use in a Scrabble game).

Digitalgran said...

i don't think I have seen anything made by you in these colours before, but they are strikingly beautiful and this comes from someone who hardly ever uses blue. I look forward to seeing the finished piece.

Digitalgran said...

I forgot to congratulate you on your 500th post. All of them worth reading. Thank you for all the inspiration.

Sue Krekorian said...

Happy Postiversary!

I also think this current piece of work is stunning and look forward to seeing its progress. The shapes, stitching and colours so far are extremely pleasing.