Synchronicity, part 1
So last summer Mrs.5000 found this big box of scrap corduroy for a buck at a garage sale and hefted it home a good mile or something so she could give it to me for my birthday. Mrs.5000 understands me.
Meanwhile, in 1921, Piet Mondrian painted one of his famous grids of rectangles and primary colors. (Neoplasticism, I think the genre is called. The de Stijl movement! i iz likes art history.) This particular one is usually called Composition in Red, Yellow, Blue, and Black.
Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis
And so eventually the idea of "What shall I do with the corduroy?" rattling around in my head ran up hard against the idea of "you know, of all the painting genres, the de Stijl stuff is the one that would be most susceptable to a treatment in quilt form. From that collision was born a Bee in my Bonnet*, which involved compulsive internet searches for the simpler of Mondrian's work and appraising sorting of my corduroy trove.
Once I found Composition, I transferred its grid onto graph paper, made some very rough color equivalences, and started cutting. And when I say "rough" color equivalences, I mean a not-as-light-as-it-could be grey for white, burgandy for red, golden tan for yellow, and a dark, greenish blue for blue.
Nevertheless, I am very happy with my little "Mondrian Quilt" face. Indeed, I bet its one of the best adaptations of Mondrian in scrap corduroy to have been achieved on the West Coast this year!
Next question: how am I going to quilt this sucker? I guess I'll have to try to be guided by the obvious question: How would Mondrian quilt it?
Also:
The is the 100th State of the Craft post. Huzzah!
15 comments:
a totally super edition! Love the artistic license you took! Bravo!
I think in the ditch and maybe inside the shape echo quilting would enhance the design.
Oh I'd say it's definitely in the top 5 best adaptations of Mondrian in scrap corduroy NATION WIDE! Congrats :) Congrats on 100 posts, too.
SID would work but it's sooooo expected. Echo is more my kinda style and I think Mondrian would approve.
Neat - you rnext adaptaion should be a Vermeer...
(I, for the record, would have know Mondrian...)
I am seeing very large stitches that follow the wale of the cords...
I love that you're a little bit anal with your quilting... well, not anal, but like geometric and into faithfully rendering ideas in a grid-like fashion. In other words... this quilt is awesome!
Wow this is great, what a fabulous idea, is this going to hang in your home or go in a nice studio.
I saw some of Mondrians work in Amsterdam years ago when I was an art studio. It was great I still have the sketches in my sketch book. You never know the idea might find it's way on a quilt one day.
faithx
Congratulations! That quilt is awesome! I really like that you took your inspiration from art and corduroy. I can't wait to see how you choose to quilt it.
it's strangely got a saul bass movie poster feel to it.
Thanks everybody!
@Gene: That's the most likely plan, only with quilting "NEAR the ditch" rather than "IN the ditch." On the other hand, with fabric this thick, getting down there in the ditch might simplify things. We'll see.
@Quilty: w00t!
@Calico: You'll have to get in line with that suggestion. Other ideas have ranged from "The Persistance of Memory" to "I and the Village." Yeah, yeah....
@Reb: Well, probably 95% of all quilting is rendering geometric ideas in a grid-like fashion. I think that's why the craft works for me. Also: talk about the pot calling the kettle anal.... : )
@Faith: I'm envying you for getting to see the originals....
@La Manosa: Yep -- Mondrian and scrap corduroy! The weird thing is how the idea just popped into my head fully formed, seeming completely natural.
@Matson: You know, I've totally thought before that the Saul Bass look could be rendered in quilting. Probably not by me, and probably not in corduroy. But there's room for somebody to experiment there.
That is the first thing I thought of when I first saw a Modrian painting.. This would look great as a quilt!
Cindy in Seattle
hey i think it looks great. its NOT a mondrian knock-off, its your own work and your own interpretation. look, the way i see it, not much is new. i was in chicago a few weeks ago and went to the art institute and was reminded upon seeing old (~2500 years ago) Chinese vases that even fabric designers today get their inspirations from SOMEthing - sometimes even 2500 year old chinese bowls. sure, we add our own tint to things (like you did with your color choice, fabric (it could have been suede, leather, pleather, silk, polyester etc), anyway i'm just rambling by this point but it was an interesting post you had about the whole concept of nothing new.
I just added a "self portrait" to my Google blogger account; it shows my new identity...
and I enjoy that you are trying so many different things, even if I am rather scared by the idea of stained mattress pads being used for batting...
Can't believe I missed this! It's great! It is, without question, the greatest Mondrian interpretation in scrap corduroy I've ever seen!
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