Recycling & Improv
Breathing New Life into Existing Art
Five months and running, this is a strange and challenging world we live in. Many of us have found respite in art or craft and I’m among those lucky enough to have that resource and interest. For me this has been a time of reflection, experimentation and revisiting places I love via imagination, photos and art. I experienced multiple phases of work during the quarantine, creating mixed media, improv quilts, landscapes as well as social/political commentary of a sort.
Phase I: Recycling an old improv
quilt top
While looking to experiment with mixed media, and to get into a creative place with a challenge, I dug out an unfinished quilt top that was done several years ago as a an improv quilt. It never worked for me, so it was time to cut it into smaller pieces and create new things.
Renewal
The renewal process included printing and painting with acrylics, quilting in a meandering pattern, adding more stitching, more paint, yarn, wool roving and tulle
Keep Calm
This is called “Keep Calm” because for some of us, working with intense colors DOES keep us calm! Process includes printing and painting the recycled fabric with acrylics, then quilting, adding more stitching, more paint, and yarn made of bits of sari silk.
Chaos
Chaos is another rework of the same improv top. As with first two, it is a mixed media piece created with printing and painting, quilting, adding more stitching more paint, and yarn.
At one point, Chaos was a disaster in my view -but then I reimagined it by incorporating scraps from already quilted art quilts.
Spiralizer
Fourth in the series made via recycling the same quilt top - again, this piece uses paint, tulle and ribbon yarn. The pink ribbon yarn on top of “Spiralizer” is intended to convey hope and Springtime.
Blue Day
“Blue Day” or “Half Kaffe“ Made from several discarded quilt blocks and scrap fabric. The middle piece was an existing block made of Kaffe Fasset fabrics that had been cut and appliquéd previously. The whole medallion style art quilt top was printed on and painted with acrylics, then quilted. This was followed by additional printing and painting in a strong cobalt blue. Finally, I added thick yarn to give it more texture and structure.
Just Be
I chose a few words to go with “Just Be” that reflect my values. Can we all agree that most of these are universal values? Begun when I had an angry reaction to the lack of truthfulness, empathy, taking of responsibility and respect for science coming from the usual suspect(s.) After sketching a negative idea out, I decided to go positive. Process: improv quilt blocks were pieced together and then over-dyed with turquoise. Letters were appliquéd onto the dyed background fabric. Yarn and tulle embellishments were added, followed by free motion quilting