mid-tones

I’ve been struggling with the new work I’m making for the Bellevue Arts Museum. Every step has been challenging, actually. It may be because I’m getting in my own way because it’s a high profile show but it’s also a new twist on what I’ve done before. I’m making a series of pieces that work together as a whole. It’s difficult to find the balance that makes them all work together. Each individual change affects the whole.

I finished the paper patterns last week and have moved on to fabric choices. I quickly determined that I did not have enough big pieces of fabrics. I went back to my stash of fabrics and over-dyed 18 pieces of fabric. I also dyed 9 yards of muslin for the interiors and 7 yards of cotton for the backs. This has given me a lot of choices, perhaps too many.

lights

I’ve been struggling with how to make the piece visually cohesive. I decided early on to use the same fabric (more or less) for the center panels of all the pieces. It’s a pole-wrapped rayon/silk velvet dyed in dark red violets. I’m going to use a dark yarn in a matching color to edge all the pieces so that when they are sewn together it will read like veins. But beyond that one unifying element, it felt very chaotic.

organizing chaos

While I was out of town I began to think about using a gradation of value from dark at the bottom to lighter at the top, much like the coral would appear under water. Yesterday I arranged all the fabrics in order of darkest value to lightest and then Vivian (my fabulous intern) and I took them downstairs to where the paper patterns were hung of the wall. The “aha” moment came when I realized I could use the same darkest value fabric on all four of the lowest panels and lighten up the value from there. Darks would move to mid-tones, mid-tones would move to lights. I used a print of a photo to outline the shapes of the pieces and labeled them by the value of the fabric that I’ll use. When I looked at the photo again I realized that the answer had been there all along in the way the pieces are naturally shaded by being light from above.

Just like that, the organization of the piece came clear and the chaos fell away. No final decisions have been made beyond a few clear choices but I feel so much more at peace with the project. I have a plan and I know how to go forward. I’m sure there will be more challenges along the way but, for now at least, the path is clear.