Continuing with the marks into stitches I have come up with some interesting insights about myself and my processes of work/motivations. I was expecting to find at the end of the making marks chapter some sort of final assignment, a project where we finally put our learnings to a practical final product. I was a bit surprised there isn't such a thing. The process is the product. I realised this said more about me than it said about the course... so something for me to concentrate on is the journey as well as the destination.
This theme was also highlighted in the way I completed the last stage. To begin with I did read and followed the instructions from the workbook. I looked through the paintings, selected the ones with interesting marks and then went on to represent the marks into stitches, whilst trying to make some little textile pictures I could hang on my wall (talk about product orientated!). Whilst stitching I did focus on the different textures and how to express them, both by hand and with the sewing machine - however the main focus of the final product was the 'whole' rather than the 'parts'.
When I realised what I had done I decided to be a bit more disciplined and to focus more on the 'feeling' of the stitch/mark, so I forced myself to depart from trying to be too faithful to the original image and concentrate on the individual marks. I did that by selecting very specific 'bits' of images, rather than the whole lot or large sections of the pictures. I also selected two of my paintings - and the bits around the sun in some Van Gogh paintings. Here are the images and the stitches I made from them:
So I think I did manage to fulfil the purpose of the activity... and learnt a bit about myself in the process. It was a valuable learning point which I can take on to the rest of the course and other areas of my life.
As a bit of explanation on the actual exercises, I was looking to express the feeling of the marks both through the personality of the individual stitches and their behaviour in groups. This is also the same way as brush strokes act, as each individual brush stroke (straight, curvy etc) and in groups (similar sizes, different sizes, following a pattern, ad-hoc, the direction they take etc) that makes up the individual feelings of the groups/sections.
I also experienced with felting - here's the result:
Still a bit uneven (although I was looking for uneaven edges) but I like the way it went and the possibilities it offers regarding textures and colours. More next weekend.
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