Monday 12 January 2015

Friend or foe? New work


Meet the latest in my series of ‘Unsung Muses’. Not sure whether she is friendly or scary, but I'd definitely want her on my side! She’s not formally named yet and there may still be some changes, but for the moment, she is sat on my wall to be contemplated.  You may be able to see some pins around the edges of the piece as I have been trying to block the hanging into a less wavy shape.

She has taken a long time to make, partly as I tried to make a darker figure on a lighter background – instinctively I want to make it the other way around, but I keep reading (a dangerous thing) that dark stands out better on a light background rather than the reverse.  The background felt too weak, so got improved, several times, with inktense and with stitch.  The breasts were too bright, so the colour got knocked back by adding some chiffon on top.  The edges changed shape a couple of times.

This may tell you that I’m still a bit unsure of this piece.  Therefore it is time to leave it alone and mull it over whilst I get on with the next one, which is well underway as it seemed more fun to start another piece than to battle on with something I was unsure on.





4 comments:

SheilaD said...

Always best to leave them be for a while if you have no idea where to go with them. Suddenly it will come to you! I am currently working on a piece I started 4 years ago, and had no idea what to do with once I had the basics. Now it is annoying me to much by still hanging around, so it has concentrated the mind a bit!

Gillian Cooper said...

Sometimes it does takes ages, doesn't it? I came across some sketches yesterday from 7 years ago when I first tried to make this work but it took another 3 years before I really got started.

Maggi said...

She provides far less comfortable viewing than the others in the series but I like her. I hope that you don't mind me saying but I find the size of the boobs a distraction, or perhaps that is part of the message behind the image?

Gillian Cooper said...

Thanks Maggi. You're right the boobs are the focal point - there are a number of messages that can be read into that such as commenting on how women are viewed in society or letting this 'creature' celebrate her oddly shaped body among others. I like to leave it open to interpretation.

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