Sunday, February 7, 2010

My List

Not much in new work this week as I've been struggling to keep on top of Pamela Allen's class. It took off full force with everyone posting lots of exercises and Pamela critiqueing them all. One of the best learning experiences I've had--I'll be posting more about that soon.

I mentioned that I had a big list of projects in my head for after all the show stuff was over, and Lee asked me what they are. I decided to post them here so I can keep them in mind and maybe actually do some of them!

First, painting (day) and slow, hand stitching (night) need to be at the top of the list in some form because I like the way they make me feel. I crossed Photoshop off the list after my class, not that I've mastered it, but I have enough now to be satisfied. I have been pondering whether I want to transfer some of my photoshopped images to fabric and hand stitch on that. Maybe.

Mainly the projects I want to do are things I've done in the past that keep haunting me, wanting more development or a different direction. I figure if I think about them enough, they need to be done.

My top 10--in no real order and with no hopes of actually doing them all:

  1. Return to faces. My favorite subject for a long time. I'm thinking of ways I want to handle them in fabric.
  2. Work with the gorgeous pile of scraps that Cindy gave me. Maybe a scrappy journal?
  3. Do more with the dangly chain concept I started earlier. Very scrappy, rough fabric this time.
  4. I've been fascinated with the idea of transparent fiber pieces that hang in a window since Gerdiary posted them here. I'm thinking of bits of color, sun catcher style.
  5. Make pillows for my couch-- maybe faces or just texture.
  6. Turning the experimental drawings I did earlier into fabric pieces.
  7. Painting on blocks of wood to make them sculptural.
  8. Return to houses in some form, another recurring theme for me.
  9. Dye more fabric. This time force myself to do more grays and lights!
  10. Make more graffiti fabric like I used here. It's all gone.

These are faces from sketchbooks over the year:





And some made their way to fabric long ago:





8 comments:

Jacky said...

Fabulous faces! Love the fabric one, cant wait to see more. Do you know the blog Itsy Bitsy Spill...she does fabulous faces too that look great with fabric too.

Great list (I think I need to do a list to keep me on track...so easily distracted).

Robin Olsen said...

Thanks Jackie. I didn't know about Itsy Bitsy Spill before--I do love her stitched faces.

Threadspider said...

I think your idea of making a list is a good way to take the next steps-it certainly focuses the mind. I think maybe that's where I go wrong-never actually list, so never really focus.
I like your black and white with touches of colour experiments.Somehow they seem to capture the border between still and animated.It will be very interesting to see how this grows.

gerfiles said...

Great list, indeed... inspires me to put more detail into my own. I like how you don´t only look forward but think of what past issues to involve again... + I like your faces (+ I can imagine beautiful results if you´d consider to "force" yourself to do more grays + lights here, too... - yes, sorry, always advocating gray, but it´d match their translucency so well...)

Michala Gyetvai (Kayla coo) said...

Hi Robin,
I love the painted faces too.
Will you work these in fabric?
Great work.x

Robin Olsen said...

Ger, you are the major reason I need more grays in my life--a good advocate indeed!

I'm always questioning what (and how) to translate from painting into fabric and when it is better to just leave it alone. I definitely want to do faces in fabric, but whether they are on the lines of my painted ones, I'm not sure yet.

Dreamcicle Journeys said...

That's an ambitious list, Robin. I like how detailed each item on your list is. Wow, your faces are dramatic and would tranlate well in fabric.

jude said...

sometimes i think of my quilts as lists.