Tuesday, March 18, 2008

JUST ENOUGH


One of my favorite textile techniques is piecing. Usually associated with quilt tops, piecing is the simple act of joining smaller pieces into a larger whole. The image above is from a collection of quilts from Gees Bend. These quilts have been recently recognized for their strong graphic sense and unusual color combinations. They are far from the tradition of precise cutting of new cloth to specific shapes which are joined into planned and graphed patterns. They share a strong color sense with Amish quilts but are looser and reveal their origins as rags and leftovers.

When working with paper, I often start with a version of strip piecing. Long strips are glued or stitched together, then sliced apart perpendicularly or at an angle and reordered and joined again. This is often a preparation step for me, done for the joy of combining color, textures and patterns and without a specific use in mind. I work with a whole range of sizes and shapes, precisely cut quarter inch strips, roughly torn papers, color all in a family or narrow tonal range, dramatically contrasting hues and values. Sometimes I am cutting into fresh sheets and other times I'm combining leftovers from other work. At some point I run out of one of the papers or the field seems big enough or I just move on to other things and that section is finished.

I'll keep these sections pinned to my work walls, pin them near whole sheets of paper, prints, paper cuts or other materials I am thinking about. Sometimes I cut them apart again and add other elements. Sometime I cover them with a wash of color that unifies the surface but still allows the variation of papers to show through. At some point they become a right element to fit into a particular piece.

It is often at this point that they start to share a sensibility with the Gees Bend quilts. Inevitably I do not have quite enough of one type of these pieced parts to fill the space allotted in my composition. So I cut areas apart and rejoin them to the proportions now needed. The patterns break down into smaller units as I eke the last square inch out of a certain set of papers. I float the pieced parts on a new field of color leaving a contrasting edge or I add new elements to stretch what I already have.

In words this process sounds a bit tedious but in my reality, it is quite satisfying. The constraints leading to a richer solution, the gift of the unplanned moments and the bittersweet of compromise.

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