Red Cipher
2022
27″ H x 50″ W
Techniques:
Quilted on long arm machine, inset added during quilting. Hand sewing.
Materials:
commercially printed cotton, poly-cotton batting
A definitively placed symbol indicates significance. Focus vacillates between inset detail and the broader entirety, searching for clues of how to “solve for X.” Information is lacking, decoding is futile. Lacking meaning, the visual extends no further than how it appears. You are here, with the artwork, marked by the X.
Inspiration
I’ve had this Marimekko fabric waiting for me to do something with it. It fascinated me in it’s simple, yet complicated design – I guess something like a dragonfly’s wings. Attempting a minimalistic look is so far from my usual style that I thought it would be an interesting thing to attempt.
Knots & Tangles
Purposely made for a call for entry about “Minimalism.” I discovered that this is not an easy look to achieve. It did not get accepted into the exhibit, but I’m okay with lessons I learned from making this. And since I’m not attached to the final product, it is easy to think about re-working it as something else.
This didn’t get into the exhibit that I had intended it for, so now I am re-working it. I have painted, beaded and shot it with a hand gun. It’s now in my time-out pile, waiting for further inspiration…