I've been fiddling with this piece since midnight last night. It's been painted, covered with tulle, stitched, painted some more, had pieces removed, auditioned with buttons, had the sides cut off and now it has this black dotted fabric pinned to it and I am in "time out".How long do you try to "save" it before declaring it "DEAD". Up close, it has some nice bits. Far way, it is oatmeal. Mushy. I'm having a bit of yogurt and fruit to give me strength to go back in and "do what needs doing".
I started with a low opinion. See what that gets you? Start with positive thoughts and things go much better. What about positive thoughts that happen midway? Can they do the job? I'm one of those people who believe that you can actually make a silk purse out of a pig's ear. It'll still smell like pig but it'll look pretty nice from far away.
This is when I wish you--yes, you reading this-- were nearby, and I could say-"get over here and look at this and tell the truth". I used to tell the truth all the time. But that can limit the number of social activities one gets invited to, so now I hedge my bets. A speck of truth with alot of nothing if my opinion is required by someone "touchy". "My, that's interesting!" is my favorite. So don't say that to me---I know *exactly* what it means!! " You made this?" is another but you have to get the verbal inflection just right. "Oh, my!" has been used to great success, also. LOL My family gets the plain, unvarnished truth. (Hi, Sam!)
Speaking of Sam. She and I had dinner last night and then went over to TJMaxx and looked at the most god-awful clothing we had ever seen there. We had time on our hands so we started "making outfits" and saying "Oh, this is nice together". LOL And then--- a customer walked by in a black net skirt with red shorts under it ( all peek-a-boo) and a purse that looked like a small pony saddle---no, really, it was shaped exactly like a saddle. She had on black tights under the red shorts and shiny red patent big clunky shoes. Her hair was dyed black and in ringlets and she had on red lipstick. The new fashion buyer for TJ Maxx???? Sam and I were mesmerized. I wanted to follow her around the store to see what she liked and bought. "Nice outfit!" Geez! But wherever she was--the aisle was crowded.
7 comments:
Well you already know what the problem is because you said it yourself...it's mushy. Everything except the white circles in the background fabric is medium value, so if you looked at this piece in gray scale you'd hardly see any pattern to it at all. My opinion, FWIW, is that you need to hack it up and add some dark darks and light lights in places.
well if you hack and depending on how cathartic the hacking becomes, you could definitely create postcards!
How about mounting one of your line drawings on it? I love it when you post pix from your sketch book. Maybe this could serve as a big, wild background for a wonderful little sketch. I agree... most of todays fashion is completely misguided.
Because you painted the fabric you may have qualms about cutting it up. Putting stuff on it as you have is the same visually as cutting it up.
Instead leave it whole and add more lively painted pieces to it. Make it huge, since the scale of the painted fabric is already LARGE. It could be really dramatic and powerful if used at its full scale.
Wednesday's Child reporting in. None of you said it was dead yet, so there is hope. Surgery is required.
But back to the original question--how long do you try and save it????
I can see years spent trying to fix something. I read about a woman and her painting of a Rose. 13 years and about 10 inches of paint on the surface and still not "right". She kept painting it.
Put it away for a couple of months without the stuff on it. When you take it out, you will see new possibilities. (Does this sound like a fortune cookie or a fortune teller speaking?)
Happens to me all the time. Fold it up and put it in the closet. You'll see it with different eyes.
I agree..put it away for at least a few weeks and when you pull it out, if it doesn't answer right away, put it back in the dark for a little longer, but I see great potential.
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