You know about the left and right sides of the brain, right? The left side excels at logical thinking. Categorizing, sequencing, etc. but sees things mostly black and white. The right side is the creative side. It considers many options and sees many shades of grey.
Well, I’m mostly left brained. My brain automatically sorts, sequences, and plans. Yes, I can create art, but it’s not as automatic for me. Sometimes I need some warm up exercises (or days!) to get me into the creative groove. And it tires me out after awhile. I’m envious of those of you who can work on your art all day. I HAVE to take a break and go read my email, balance the checkbook, or do SOMETHING that’s black and white, rather than open ended. All those art choices can wear me out!
My left brain was quite happy with my recent tomato quilt. After all, I basically copied a photo with fabric as the medium. There’s nothing wrong with that and I like the quilt very much.
Vine Ripened
But, as I was finishing the quilt, I had a nagging dissatisfaction with my process. Not the quilt itself, but my thinking. I’m an artist, after all. Did I really bring my hand, my vision, to the piece? Did I alter it to make it better? Well, maybe a little. But, it seemed like I had maybe taken the easy way out. I wanted to push myself more. To abstract the image somehow.
In the past, I’ve had luck creating torn paper collages from magazine pages. The inaccuracy of tearing causes the image to be looser. This can often be a good way to abstract an image. So, I decided to give it a try, again. I tore a bunch of images and text from a magazine and got to work.
Hmm. It was starting to look just like the fabric version. Not really what I wanted.
This is as far as I got before I became completely bored with the exercise.
Well, that was no great success, but what did I expect when referencing the same image? Clearly, I needed to change my focus. Maybe I’d have better luck with a single tomato. My favorite one, with the great curving leaves.
Using photo editing software, I loosely drew the main components of the tomato, putting each leaf and shape on a separate layer. That way, I could manipulate each item individually.
I began to ask myself some questions about this tomato:
What is my favorite part?
What can I leave out and have it still represent a tomato?
How can I represent the round shape more abstractly?
After LOTS of experimenting I came up with this sketch.
What do you think? I was kind of in love with it. It was my first ever graphic abstract design.
I didn’t really intend to make another quilt when I started this process, but I just couldn’t resist. Here’s the start.
It should go quickly, so stay tuned.
I’d love to hear your ideas for creating abstract designs. Please comment if you have tips.
Also, I’m going to need a name for this piece. Send me your suggestions.
Ellen Lindner