My name is Charlotte, sometimes known as Ms Lottie, occasionally as The Slightly Mad Quilt Lady. This is my blog, where you'll find me writing a lot about my quilting and textile arts and a little about my family's life in a small seaside town in New Zealand. Haere mai!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

I don't feel lonely.

This year I decided I needed to develop my art quilting.  And so I have several exhibitions and competitions lined up that I want to enter.  The first one is Beneath the Southern Skies, a touring exhibition that is shown in Australia and New Zealand.  The closing date is tomorrow, and today I filled in the on-line application and sent off my photos.  So pleased!


The design brief was for textile artists to explore the title theme using a prescribed size of 40cm (width) by 100cm (length).  

My materials I used were hand-painted silk fabric (heart strings contracted when I cut this, I loved it so much once I had painted it!), cotton fabric, cotton, rayon and metallic thread.  I raw edge appliqued the pohutukawa tree to the silk and machine quilted the piece with a tiny bit of hand stitching done in metallic thread.

The name "I don't feel lonely" came about from the feelings I had as I surveyed the scene that inspired the quilt.




If it's accepted for exhibition I'll be excited, but if it's not, I'm still excited!  I'm excited that I made an art quilt that I really love.  I'm excited that I've taken the first step in developing my art quilting and I'm excited that I can now show it to you.



This is the quilting in the sky as seen from the reverse side - I realise it is difficult to see from the front in some of the photographs.  I wanted Ranginui - The Sky Father*, to be subtle, revealed when you stood closer and took a second look.


The hardest parts of this were - knowing when it was done, taking good photographs and writing the blasted artist's statement!  

"Beneath the southern sky the pohutukawa tree stands silhouetted. It could be a scene of loneliness but I sense mystery, a waiting, perhaps a presence greater than us. Maybe it’s Papatuanuku – The Earth Mother, and Ranginui – The Sky Father. I wait. And watch. And slowly the dusk unfolds to night. Ranginui and Papatuanuku sleep."

* This website has a nice summary of the Maori creation legend that involved Ranginui and Papatuanuku (it's the third one down).

12 comments:

  1. Clever chickie! I wish you well and best of luck.

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  2. Wow! That's all. Wow! Best of luck, KUP!

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  3. Gorgeous and mysterious! Good luck.

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  4. Beautiful quilt, I like it a lot. Good luck for the exhibit!

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  5. Love the look and the meaning behind it! Good luck, but as you have said, whether you get in or not, YOU know you have created something truly beautiful (not that your other quilts are not beautiful, but I think you know what I mean!)

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  6. Good luck with that :) Its lovely.

    I must say I hate artists comments too. Mostly I just say what it is and what its made from and thats that! The rest is up to the viewer. I've never wanted to direct viewers because why should I impact on their ideas and imagination. It would be equivalent to talking about a piece of music while its playing if you ask me.

    viv

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  7. WOW - so beautiful, you truly have a God given talent and gift Charlotte!!

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  8. Thank you for blog comment! Oh it's beautiful - love what you've done and I love the story of your tree. Cait x

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  9. Hi ms lottie, thanks for your kind words on my blog. I came over to have a look at yours and was blown aay by this quilt - it's gorgeous! Great work!

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  10. Well done Charlotte - good luck with getting in... very inspiring!

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  11. So poetic and a very mature piece creatively speaking. You can be really proud of it. As you know art is open to interpretation and as I gazed at it I felt a strong connection. The roots going down into the soil reminded me of family, generations, traditions and support, strength heritage. How can we feel lonely when in the quiet of dusk in a moment of reflection we feel our ancestors and glimpse those who are yet to come. We see ourselves not as lone individuals but part of the whole. The over laying of the Maori legend is also genius. Congratulations.

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