Leni Wiener

I thank you all for your comments (most came through email and are not on the site).  The opinions were mixed about equally between the photo and the quilt.  I decided that what I didn’t like about the quilt was that it got puffy with the batting inside, so I spent three hours pulling out every single stitch so that I could redo it without batting.  (Yes, I am crazy!).

Having done that this morning (while baking for thanksgiving) I still didn’t like it.  It just didn’t look like me. The jaw and chin didn’t look right.  The answer, as it almost always is–VALUE.  Although there was a difference in value between the fabrics I used, their relation to each other was wrong.  So I started again (I told you I am crazy).

Look at this photo and you will see the problem.  The finished (first) quilt on the right, the photo in the center, and the new piece (in work) on the left.  Even without the eyes, the new one looks more like me than the finished one.

Looking at the finished one, there is a difference in the values of the skin tones and shadows but not enough.  So even though the pieces are the right shape, the chin and jaw don’t show up enough.  The face was redone using six different values, #1 and #2 being fairly close to each other (in fact, #1 is the back of #2) and then a bigger jump in value to #3.  That means that the jaw and chin are more well defined.

On the other hand, the lips were too dark, lightening them looks more natural.  And the hair in the first quilt is too contrasty–my real hair has only subtle highlights.

The point?  Value is often more important than color in creating the image.  Just look at these portraits I did a while back in completely non-naturalistic colors:

So that is my thought on value and their importance in the final product.  I hope to have this finished by tomorrow, and will post the finished quilt for your opinions again.

Have a wonderful thanksgiving.  Thank you for supporting my little blog!

Some of you may know that I have a book coming out this spring entitled “photo inspired art quilts” in which I describe my method and techniques for creating the photo realistic quilts seen here, and on my site.  Writing a book, well mostly getting it published, is a very interesting process, and this fall I went (with all my quilts and each individual step for instructions) to Cincinnati to have the book photographed.  At the time, the photographer also did my “author portrait” which was the part I most dreaded.  We came up with two or three possibilities, and called it done.

Two weeks ago I emailed asking for that photo and the one that came back made me wince.   Either he saved one I hadn’t liked (he deleted all the others) or I was more tired than I thought when I made the decision, but I didn’t want it to see the light of day (although, I will share it with you).

With the book deadline approaching, and the thought of another “sitting” I decided to “make lemonade” as the expression goes.  I took the photo, created a “pattern” for it in photoshop, and made an art quilt of myself as the author portrait.

This is a very interesting exercise.  I have done more conceptual self portraits before, but never one that I wanted to be an accurate depiction of me.  At times I thought I looked like my mother, at others I looked like a cousin (I never thought we resembled each other in any way).  It is so strange to focus so much attention on the face I see every day in the mirror, the face I thought I knew so well.

Try it some time when you aren’t inspired to do anything in particular.  Mine isn’t large–about 14″ square.  It took me only a weekend.

here I am looking older, fatter, and paler than I saw myself in real life!

The pattern I created for myself in photoshop (using the cutout filter set to 8 levels)

Finally, me done in fabric.  I am not sure about it.  What do you think–is it better than the original photo, or should I suck it up and use that?  Comments welcomed!

After a few busy days, it was back to work.  I wanted to combine the strip of the staircase with some traditional quilting, done in an untraditional way.  I have a trick for marking intricate designs–I print them and pin to the quilt, sew on the lines and then (this is the messy part) tear the paper out.

One of the problems with this technique is that inevitably some areas are missed, and others pull out a bit, but here is the basic quilting:

I am not loving this yet, it seems to be too much of a return to traditional quilting, but it is all about the process, so I will re-evaluate and see where I go from here.  It is important to keep in mind, when you try to break out of your box and try something new–sometimes it works and that sometimes it is just a bridge to something that works.

I have not posted for a few days, because, frankly I wasn’t accomplishing anything.  Often when I feel blocked it is a message that I need to evolve, need to find a new expression that excites me and makes me want to go into the studio and work.

Prior to the flamenco piece (which is still on the design wall waiting to be completed) I did two pieces that I felt marked the end of something for me.  One was “Market Day, Sarlat” (based on a photo my friend Peggy took in France).

As much as I enjoyed working on the woman, I found myself bored by having to create the environment around her.  The other was Tourist Season:

I loved working on all the people in the piece, but when I had to create the environment, I kept it very simple, in part so as not to detract from the people, but the truth is, I felt I wanted to move away from photo realism and towards abstraction–something I have always wanted to explore.

Flamenco was a piece that I wanted to make, and again, kept the background to a minimum.  I felt while I was working on it that it marked the end of something, and I needed to enter another phase.

It is important to continue to grow as an artist, or it becomes too boring, too routine.  I have found that the exploration of how to evolve and where to go is as much a function of establishing what I love to do as it is an admission of what I no longer enjoy.  In this case, much reflection has led me to understand that I am still interested in the human element, but want to move away from the buildings and and the background–towards a more abstract presentation.  As I am still influenced by (and want to work from) photography, pure abstractionism is not for me–not now, anyway.

Having said that, a photo I took of a window revealing a staircase at the Museum of Modern Art has been in my head.

This photo offered me the opportunity to focus my attention on the staircase and figures without a lot of stuff going on in the environment.

The gorgeous hand-dyed fabric I have been holding onto for some time now (I purchased it, I did not make it) becomes the perfect environment for the more stylized depiction of the photo.  This is still very rough, but I like where it is going.

Remember, if you feel blocked artistically, it may be a message from your subconscious that you aren’t challenging yourself, or growing.

I would love to hear your comments!

After pondering and looking at it, I think I have decided to go with the second version.  Although I love the idea of the doorway from the perspective of telling a story, it doesn’t relate visually.  I also think the piece will be stronger if it is a vertical format.

Thanks for all your comments.

I will post photos as they move forward.

Now that I know comments can be posted, I put this to you:

which do you like better:

version 1:

This includes a figure in a doorway in the back.  This is (I hope) an interesting and thought-provoking addition which will require the viewer to fill in the story.  I am not sure if the doorway is a distraction, and if the square format dilutes some of the energy.

version 2:

The doorway is cropped out, returning the piece to a vertical format–stressing the length of the dancer’s legs and giving the quilt more energy.

version 3:

The chair in the background has been removed.  It was included as a visual bridge from the action of the front to the doorway in the back, but the space looks empty now.  It added a sense of depth and perspective.

what do you think?

Yesterday I was able to spent some real time in the studio working on the flamenco dancer.  Satisfied with her and moving on to the guitarist in the background, I added his lower half!  Initially, I used the fabric with the silver swirls for his sleeve, but decided that it would be great as the floor so I changed his sleeves.  Looking at it, I got the idea of a rose on the floor at his feet–I am thinking rather than title it something like “flamenco” that I may title it something more intriguing like “unrequited love.”  I know the background needs to be substantially black, but will work next at trying to add other colors or other shades of black so that it isn’t so flat and uninteresting.

I didn’t get too much time to work on this yesterday, so this morning I spent some time on it.  I started with a little tweak of the sideways facing foot–it just didn’t look right to me.  Although it looks better, I am still not certain it won’t be changed again.  But I needed to step away from that for now and moved onto the guitarist in the background:

I am putting that tree quilt behind me while I let my ideas about fabric weaving percolate in my head.  For now I am back in my comfort zone, working on another fabric collage.  This will allow me to accomplish two things–first it will get this out of my head where it has been nagging for a while, and secondly, it will allow me to clear my mind a bit so that I can formulate more specific ideas about what I want to do next.

This piece came from a video of a Flamenco dancer my friend, Sandra shot in Spain recently.  As soon as I saw it I knew the fabric in my stash that had to be the skirt.  There is so much movement in the fabric, and the light and dark look very much like the moving ruffles.

On another note, I discovered quite by accident that MOMA (the museum of modern art in NYC) is opened on Monday.  Not the perfect day to go as every tourist in the city has discovered the same thing, but none the less, worthwhile.  My friend, Eileen and I were not able to get into the new Van Gogh exhibit, so we wandered through the permanent collection.  Despite having seen the permanent collection many times, I discovered lots of things I hadn’t really noticed or focused on before which relate to what I am working out in my own art.  Now that museums allow photos in most galleries (hooray!) I took lots of photos and have lots to absorb.  I am working out in my head a new direction for my work, and will share those photos and my new pieces as I sort them out.

Where ever you live, get out and look at art!  Especially looking at different media will influence you in ways you can’t imagine.  No matter where you are, there is someplace to see some sort of art.  Take an hour off from your day and do it.  It really gets your creativity working.  I went with my friend Eileen (a very talented ceramicist–check her out at www.eileenbraunceramics.com) and interestingly, we often responded to the same pieces and saw in them ideas to play with in our very different materials.

I got the idea to try weaving the background, controlling placement of colors.  Although I do not adore this final quilt, I do like the idea of the background enough to play with it.  This is often how a series develops– exploring an idea or technique until the seed develops and grows into something that is uniquely your voice.  Right now it looks too much like piecing, and like ribbon weaving.  But I want to play with it.  Check back to see where it goes.