Nellie"s Needles

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

"Tumbling Block"

Tumbling Block - 24"x24" - 2006

The colored fabric is a crayon transfer piece that I had purchased from the Holland Arts Council in Michigan about 10 years ago. Crayon art transferred onto fabric that had been made by students was sold to raise money for community art programs. I was impressed that someone naturally chose the secondary colors from the color wheel as well as by the proportions used for each hue. Also the simple design of a block within a block within a block appealed to me. It took a while to find its place in my work.


The "Tumbling Block" title for this crinkle art piece is a play on words of the name for a traditional quilt block pattern. I cut the crayon transfer fabric into four irregular pieces. Each of those had two strips of black fabric printed with tumbling stick figures inserted. The four sections were sewn back together separated by strips of those tumbling figures. I surrounded this center piece with elongated triangles of fabric that was printed with what I interpreted as tumbling rocks. This addition set the center askew adding even more tumbling to the theme.


This piece is mounted on acrylic that has spacers attached to the back so it hangs a 1/2" away from the wall, making it appear to be tumbling in space. I very much like the shadows created on the wall by the angle of the lighting of the fabric edges and and extended threads .


Here it is being viewed at MB Gallery in Chicago, Illinois.

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4 comments:

Teodo said...

your works are beautifull and everyday I look at your blog
ciao from Italy

Nellie's Needles said...

For several days there have been quite a few visitors from Italy. Thank you for your interest.

Shelina said...

It is a beautiful piece.

Kay said...

You know, I missed your work in a gallery again! We were in Chicago last weekend for my
Christmas gift (a great weekend getaway with shows, etc.) and one thing we did was look at galleries. I wish I'd known you would have works somewhere, because I sure would have tracked them down. If you posted about this, I missed it. Anyway, good for you!