Monday, August 02, 2010

On A Roll






This is "Leave Only Footprints".  It measures approximately 36" x 60" and is my commentary on the Deepwater Horizon disaster in our precious Gulf of Mexico.  The piece actually began about a year ago, as an experiment of deconstructed screenprinting on cotton canvas.  I had loved the screening, but when I washed out the canvas, only faint reminders of the lovely screen remained.  Bummer!  I folded it up and put it away.  Then I dragged it out several months ago and for some reason scrunched it up and stuck it in the light blue dye bath.  It came out reminding me of light streaming through ripply water.  I didn't think much of it and decided to use the fabric as a trial for the screens I was preparing for "The Key to Centering", which I showed you yesterday.  So, there are a couple of motifs from that piece on this one.  At the same time, I was toying with doing a waterfowl piece and wanted to play around with some freezer paper stencils and thermofax screens of herons and pelicans.  When I added them in black, I realized that my subconscious was working out my anger over BP's huge disaster.  While we were hiking in North Carolina this past Spring, I photographed some bootprints in dried mud.  Adding those in blood red only seemed natural.  The top and bottom of this piece are the selvedge edges of the canvas, and the sides are just frayed from where it was torn and then washed about a half dozen times.  There are many layers to this piece: about ten, culminating in the gold leaf in the center and the gritty sand (which you probably cannot detect) on the two herons.
Here are a few more shots:








PEACE











9 comments:

Gerrie said...

I love this!! You are on a roll. Looks like a nice size, too.

Eva said...

A very impressive message on a serious topic. I love the ambiguity of the black heron reminding of those poor oily creatures.

Jeannie said...

Oh Judy, I love this! As much as I miss your blogging, when you do appear, it is with something mind blowing like this. Truly beautiful.

Eva Hagbjärn said...

Wow! It looks great!

connie said...

What a statement! I really like how this came together too.

Nice to see you back!

Carol said...

Judy, another great piece of art and what a serious subject, beautifully handled. This is a reminder to us of how we can so easily produce a monumental disaster. My heart goes out to everyone and everything affected by this oil spill. xx

Linda’s Textiles said...

Love your hanging Judy & especially enjoyed the closer views. Great that you have expressed your views on the oil disaster as well as producing a fabulous textile piece.
Thanks so much for your supportive comments on my blog.

Barbara said...

Judy, this piece is amazing and speaks volumes to the crisis in the gulf.

Peace!

Elizabeth said...

Hey Stranger!! Great to see yo on my blog roll, near the top!! This is such a wonderful piece- Just wisht ath we had not had the inspiration for it!!! I ma still not able to get past the initial rage to create something about the spill!!!
Hugs!