Before I was invited to produce work for an exhibition in January at the Mary Black Gallery and got sidetracked with the gauntlet, *I had been working on the piece above. The central figure is polymer clay, fired with a brushed on bronze powder pigment and stamped with spirals (clearly visible if you click to enlarge).
The figure, and Radiant, the piece at the top of the blog, suggest trance-states to me...which is not out of keeping with the process of doing beadwork, which is precise, repetitious and at the same time, meditative. The fingers move and the patterns emerge so slowly that my original vision of how something will look changes as the piece speaks for itself.
*"Refuge" was completed October 22/06. The background is navy ultrasuede, stretched over canvas and a frame. Just the final finish framing to do now, and many more attempts to get the lighting right for a photograph. The shot above is quite color-accurate, but the refracted light is a problem. The size of the backing is 9 x 7"which should give a good idea of size of the beading and figure. Click to enlarge.
3 comments:
The piece is awesome! It would certainly make a stunning neckpiece or a fantastic focal point for a multi-media piece!
It's just that meditative, improvisational nature of bead embroidery that keeps me coming back to it...I think it may actually be the most fun I've ever had making art. (although making digital mixed media prints was also fun...)
Very, very moving.
BB...It would have to be necklace for a giant. It's pretty large, for beadwork. But your comment made me think about inserting it in something much larger...good idea. And it's odd how much many beaders seem to love digital mixed media. I can get just as lost in that as beading.
Thanks Chuck. The pieces with figures take on a life of their own once I start.
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