January 16, 2016

A New Textile: "Back and Forth"

Back and Forth, hand dyed wool on linen, 13 1/2 x 15 in.


I titled this piece Back and Forth because of the figure/ground flipflop that occurs. I had expected something like that to happen within the lime green and black rectangles––which shape dominates, the black one or the green one?––but what came as a surprise was the prominence of the central aqua rectangle, and its insistence on popping forward, probably caused by the contrast with the enclosing black. Because of this, every shape seems to be in flux. Another aspect of changeability: when I first did the studies for this work, I had four equal squares around a central square; that would have been more stable, but I opted for some variation, with overlapping and with size differences. This piece doesn't sit still, and I enjoy that about it. 


Back and Forth detail


5 comments:

  1. I see all five of the blue squares pushing forward. I think its because of the diagonal variety of blues against the flat green and black.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's a possible explanation, OPOP, also that the color has more variation.

      Delete
    2. I love this palette! The variations in the blue suggest motion somehow, and my eye wants to return to that and study it.

      Delete