Are Challenges Worthwhile?

Sometimes I wonder if pushing myself to do challenges is worthwhile. They create some stress: working on a theme you might not like, taking you away from other work, and imposing deadlines. But, they can break us out of set ways.

This wallhanging began with a Fast Friday Fabric Challenge with three requirements:

1. The Color Scheme was to choose 3 of the 6 primary and secondary colors, use values to achieve contrast and interest, and use the hue’s shades, tints, and tones. At first, I chose blue, green and yellow, but the analogous look bored me, so I switched the yellow to red, giving me more zing. I obviously pushed the green to a broader spectrum from yellow-green to blue-green as well.

2. The Technique was to fracture the surface into three or more areas, creating additional shapes to get more vibrancy. Using a variety of fabrics was suggested -- I included prints, solids, textures, cottons, and silks.

3. The Theme was Winged Things, either Natural or Man-made, using all or part of the object. I wasn’t thrilled with making a bird, bug, plane, or even the wing of a building, so I chose to do an angel, then focused in on just a portion of a wing, part of my new attraction to getting up close (like our microbiology challenge) or way out (like the cosmos quilt I have in process).

A seraph is an angelic being of the highest order, associated with light, ardor, and purity. Mentioned only in the Book of Isaiah, the seraphim were in human form with six wings each, and they revealed Isaiah’s call to ministry. They also proclaimed what is now the song of praise, “Holy, Holy, Holy.” For a fuller explanation, click here.

I fused the shapes and used blanket stitch machine appliqué and free motion quilting.

My thanks go to Laura Cater-Woods. I brought angel drawings and fabric to her workshop at East Bay Heritage Quilters on January 25th,"Tempting the Muse: Beyond the Surface." She focused us on generating ideas for personal imagery and then giving those ideas form, emphasizing individual creative process, helping us to define and explore self-direction. She and I clicked! She was the one who encouraged me to use colors I wanted to use, and to proceed with my attraction to getting in closer to the subject, even (or especially) if that brought me to an unrecognizable abstract rather than a realistic representation of the whole. This is great, since two of my 2010 goals are to work in a series and to get more abstract in my art. There . . . I said it, "my art."

And perhaps Laura is an angel sent to guide me.