turning the air to cloth
Watching the birds whirling gracefully across the blue sky with undulating curves, I think how they look like cross stitches. Then they disappear, fly away.
I was inspired to make something that might hold that ephemeral moment.
In this piece, embroidery is used as a quilting stitch to connect the birds and the air around them into a kind of spirit cloth.
The black birds that move so beautifully in unison over the fields could be seen as a metaphor for those dark yet brief moments that happen in all our lives.
Or perhaps they just show us that it's time to make a change in direction.
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| Round Lake Mud Bay 1915 oil on wood by Tom Thomson |
There is
an exhibition opening this weekend at the Perivale Gallery and I am showing this bird quilt.
Images of the full quilt can be seen
here.
It is a two sided quilt.
Above Us is the second side of the wall piece
turning the air to cloth. The dark outlines of the birds in flight are filled with white or light coloured threads to signify peace and calmness. The underneath side of the common embroidery stitches that cover the body of the quilt mark it with an unexpected, subtle drawing.
9 comments:
such beautiful colours and textures, Tom Thomson's work is a wonderful point of departure
beautiful. the spirit of it.
Simply magic Judy !
How you stitch life..........
It's a winner....the LIFT of those black birds and the turning of the sky round!
An exciting piece, embodying that surprise moment we are sometimes privileged to witness in life. That they are black gives the metaphor gravity.
A particular kind of peace in those birds...and ephemeral freedom. Lovely!
that sky!
ohhhhh .... those colors, those blues, that turquoise .... beautiful!
James Taylor song lyrics come to mind. Deep greens and blue r the cors i choose/ wont you let me go down in my dreams.
And rock a bye sweet baby james. "
You r beautiful!
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