I have always been interested in art that is based on process, meaning that there is a procedure which you establish and follow and it is the very act of doing that is the art. Wikipedia gives this explanation:
Process art is an artistic movement as well as a creative sentiment and world view where the end product of art and craft, the objet d’art, is not the principal focus. The 'process' in process art refers to the process of the formation of art: the gathering, sorting, collating, associating, and patterning. Process art is concerned with the actual doing; art as a rite, ritual, and performance. Process art often entails an inherent motivation, rationale, and intentionality. Therefore, art is viewed as a creative journey or process, rather than as a deliverable or end product.
With the above definition in mind, I created a procedure for a piece and attempted to follow the plan and enjoy the journey.
The Plan for TC#4
1. Start with a sandwich of 3 - 18" x 18" squares of solid colored fabric
2. Stitch across this sandwich several times
3. Cut some of the fabric away. Choose to cut through 1 or 2 layers.
4. Reuse all or part of the removed fabric by placing and sewing it back onto the sandwich
5. Repeat this process a minimum of twice
What do I think will happen? I think this may produce interesting shapes and nice surface texture. Follow the photos to see the progression and result.
I selected 2 shades of green and 1 red.
I sewed two lines of stitching and cut between. Green on right is what was removed.
Two more lines were sewn and then more of the lighter green removed to reveal the bottom layer which is a slightly darker green.
This image shows that the sandwich has been turned 90 degrees and there have been additions and subtractions of both red and green fabric.
Here you can see that the red strips are made from the fabric that remains when the material is removed between widely spaced rows of stitching.
Using my 12" x 12" window, I selected the above portion from the 18" square as the final composition.
Observations On TC #4
1. The close value of the two greens allows a nice merging of shapes but it would be interesting to see the effect of having a more diverse set of values.
2. None of the edges of the layers was finished. It would be interesting to see how finishing the edges in some contrasting value would create additional line work or go in the opposite direction and wash the piece to create more texture on the edges.
3. This type study provides another opportunity to spin off to another piece. For example: using a viewfinder, select an area and blow that area up to a much larger composition.
Read About Process Artist
