NEW PROJECT

It's always such fun to begin to translate a new idea. Our entire PTA group has been so jazzed about our 2011 'artist' challenge....where we make a small wall quilt inspired by a famous or infamous artist.

My piece, (though still not quite finished yet Kay) has already been sold and though the buyer has graciously agreed to wait for delivery until after its planned exhibit in Feb., I got to worrying about that and started thinking about making another piece for the show.

BESIDES.....one of my other original ideas was still tickling my creative spirit. The artist is Bansky. He's a UK graffiti artist. Now I know what you are thinking......I did too when I first learned how graffiti artists were becoming famous and even well respected.....with gallery shows and all. I don't condone graffiti....commissioned outdoor work has its place.....but not ugly blight.

Banksy began making his is mark on the graffiti world by making huge stencils which he could quickly paint in the middle of the night, thereby avoiding detection. I'm not a fan of political or social statements in quilting, and many of his pieces fall in that category so in a way I was sort of turned off by him. Ya, I know that's the mission of some artists, it's what makes us all individual....but that's just not what I want to do.

With all these opposing thoughts running through my mind.....I was still intrigued. Art can and perhaps even should, invoke emotion. It'd be nice if it was always positive emotion.....but that's not always going to happen.

Also, I guess another reason the subject drew me in was because of the large bin of architectural fabrics I designed years ago for Kona Bay Fabrics. Bricks, wood grain, shingles, cement, etc. What a perfect theme for their use.......

So....I begin again using Bansky as my inspiration....not sure where this will take me.....basically it's taken all week just to experiment with ideas of how to translate my idea.....

Here are a few pictures of his work that I especially liked.....the first was one of his stencil style of graffiti.....cute, harmless, and a nice addition to that cement wall.

Here's mine....

Since I don't draw....it's taken me days just to develop my motifs. At first I was going to applique the figure but 'the husband' suggested that really didn't give the right feel of Banksy. He was right, so instead, I dug out some fabric paints and added some blobs of paint on bottom left to see how they'd cover. It worked fine. Next, I moved onto making a stencil of one of the figures that will be featured & painted my 'graffiti'. This has been done on a scrap of fabric....just in case..... I hope to move onto the real thing when I finalize my design and construction approach.

Hang with me on this journey......