piece process

So I'm back from the Nancy Crow extravaganza and I must say it was remarkable. Intense, as promised, but exhilarating and possibly exalting.

We began with an exercise in black and white. So far, so good, b&w is my comfort zone. Nancy gave us a list of widths to cut and sew together, and we were set loose to make a composition out of the pieces. I started out working horizontally.

But as the thing evolved, I liked it better vertical.

That long strip of black in white at the bottom was something I stuck in as a place holder because I was (already) getting tired and we were running out of time. It is also, of course, the one thing Nancy remarked on: "I'm not sure about this piece." she said. Me neither.

That was Monday. On Tuesday (into Wednesday), we began piecing together colors in prescribed assortments (warm/cool, neutrals, neutrals and brown, brown with blue, etc.) and ratios. We were exhorted to do 16 of these. I managed 12, one of which (the rust and purple one near the bottom) was not on the list. I had confused and combined two instructions -- not the most auspicious start.

Wednesday into Thursday, we were to do another 14 or so assortments of "bold graphic prints", plaids, and stripes. I HATE plaid and refused to get any even for the purpose of the class. I made do with some batik and brights. I may have added 4 or so fabrics to the 12 from the first exercise.

Midday on Thursday, we got the final instruction: create a composition in the form of a ribbon quilt. Damn and blast!, I thought. If I had known we were going to make a ribbon quilt, I'd have approached the whole piecing exercise completely differently. Which, I realized in the next moment, is the point of not knowing.

Onward. Sorted and pinned things, hoping for a composition to emerge. I am very fond of that sparrow-color gradation of brown and gray at the top, but it didn't make it into the final piece.

Adding and subtracting and shifting things up, down, across, and around on the design wall, by midnight or so I had this:

A somewhat coherent something with a big hole in the middle. I could not resolve the void, so I gave up and went to bed. First, for levity's sake, I filled the hole with one possibility:

(That's a scrap paper label stating: "Your Name Here." My mind was not the only thing that wouldn't come into focus . . .)

Friday. Fresh perspective. At breakfast I had an idea that amounted to "retreat to your comfort zone: go for b&w." As I was working, I was uneasy about the T-shaped purple bit, but Nancy said, "Keep that. It makes the whole piece." She also was complimentary about the use of b&w to resolve the center. Okay then, be it resolved:

It was 5.30 on Friday. I had made it through -- and finished something -- and was jumping up and down chortling:"I survived Nancy Crow!" She had the grace to smile.

Saturday, I went to an exhibition of Nancy's work at the Schweinfurth Center in Auburn, and then I came home -- with renewed enthusiasm and a great deal to think about. I think this is going to be the event I look back at and say "That's where it all changed and came together."

as promised: roy g. biv

I think I may be ready for Nancy Crow's class next week. Behold:

^That's about 90 yards of solid color, 100% cotton fabric in at least 1-yard lengths. "Do NOT," Crow says, "bring marbled fabrics." Well, some of the greens are a little mottled because I'm not wildly skilled at hand dyeing. And I tried doing some hand dyeing in an effort to be somewhat economical about this extravaganza.

^Red, orange, yellow. In the back, that lovely wood-rose color I like so much (and because the store had a clear run of 6 shades). Tan to brown, and not enough gray. In my usual palette, you can never have enough gray. The pieces in the front are the hand dyes (Rit), the ones on top and in the back I bought.

^Green, Blue, Violet. I tried to buy blue violet and red violet, but in life they're closer in tone than in the picture.

Plus (not shown) 4 yards each of black and white.

Plus, Crow says, "bring bold graphic commercial prints. Do NOT bring fat quarters. We will be working selvage to selvage." (For those of you not up on the jargon, a fat quarter is a half-yard cut in half to yield a piece roughly 18 x 22 inches.)

Ai-yi-yi.
"Bold graphic commercial prints" is so not my usual thing. So I'm packing pretty much anything for which I have yardage and -- ever the iconoclast -- some fat quarters. Because in a class with Carol Bryer Fallert, she said that if she needs a bigger bit of something, she just pieces it. "And," she said, "no one has ever called me on it." If it's okay with the woman who has many, many more awards and accolades than cats have lives, who am I to argue?

The class is next week. I'm very interested to see how it goes. I've been away from color for a long time. Not out of anxiety, but because I think color is so seductive, it can overwhelm, or overcompensate for, other aspects of the work. I like the way a limited palette forces attention into the other aspects of design. Nancy Crow, on the other hand, asserts that she uses a palette of 500 colors. This is going to be so interesting.

as I was saying

Remember that the blog has been languishing since -- eek! -- April. Check.

Think that it might be well to get started again, howsoever modestly. Check.

Remember how to sign in. Check.

Sign in on the sly while my collaborator is gone walkabout (shh, don't tell Stella . . . yet) in this heat. Check.

Post a recent work from her String Theory series because when she finds out I've been blogging without her there will be sulking. And in this heat.

Realize that it has taken way too long to remember how to do this, but then it was never one of those so-called intuitive processes in the first place. Check.

Consider announcing that I've quit my job and that before looking for another, I plan to finish a draft of the novel I've wanted to write since I was 14. Not this particular novel since I was 14, but a novel since I was 14. [check?]

Mention that I have been collecting a huge pile o' fabric in anticipation of taking a class during the week of the 18th with Nancy Crow who is some kind of genius and who requires this. Promise "more about this later." Check.

That's probably enough for now.
Did I mention that it's hot?

Check.