Empty Center: Orange, hand dyed wool on linen, 9 x 9 in.
In this third in my series of textiles with the Empty Center theme, I put two vertical bands of color at opposite edges, and with a very different result. Instead of a sense of open, or embraced expanse, I felt here a confinement of space, as though bounded by the bars of a window. This is not a value judgment at all, just an observation that the visual sense of the center can be so changed by its edges that it leads to a different emotional register. Of course the warm color also changes the mood.
As with the previous works, I dyed the wool for the center by dropping dilute amounts of the color in the shapes at the edge. Since this piece had only one color, I cheated a little by adding a tiny amount of green to the dye for some of the drops in order to add variation to the color. In the detail above, you can see the warm orange color along with some subtly cooler spots.
The first two pieces in the series had somewhat similar colors, so their centers are fairly close in hue, while the third piece looks very different. I'm working on a blue/green piece now, whose center is different yet again. The little rule I've set for myself on how to dye the wool has yielded variations I hadn't expected or planned for; what fun!
I love the movement of the interior stitches in all of these. I think my favorite is the second one (top right) because it feels to me like it engages the center more, but I also like the warm palette in the most recent one.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny that you call that "cheating"! Fun, definitely, and tactile, I can feel them even through this electronic medium.
ReplyDeleteI'm liking these a lot. The darker shapes frame without confining; they converse with each other across spaces, which are not void of interest in themselves.
ReplyDeleteThank you Mona, Ravenna, and Susan, for the interesting and positive comments.
ReplyDeleteand yes, it's odd, Ravenna, that I felt like I was cheating in adding another color; I'd set parameters for myself and I wiggled out of them in this one.
Lovely! Interesting to see how the shadow creates a contrasting "frame" for the pieces, not there—and missing!—in the close-up.
ReplyDeletethanks, John. I hadn't thought of the shadow as a frame, but it is there, and I prefer these works hanging directly on the wall, unframed. So now when someone asks how I frame them, I can say "the shadow does".
DeleteBeautiful texture and subtle color. I was wondering, Altoon, if you've ever had a post where you describe how you attach the wool to the support, what you use for the support, and how you get the wool into the strips that you use. I've never seen work that looks like yours. Very nice!
ReplyDeleteAmy, I do have such posts. Just click the label "technique: rug hooking" on the right sidebar and look through the older posts. Rug hooking is an old traditional technique, widely popular. You can also google rug hooking and find lots of info online.
Deletecommentaries on empty spaces - talking to each other.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct about the border effect, but what makes it work are those tiny orange dots scattered in the center. I think that without those color (and texture) variations the design would fall flat.
ReplyDelete