“Star Map” – How I View the Stars

"Star Map" - A Hand Appliqued, Hand Quilted Contemporary Art QuiltIn a recent posting, I wrote about a Meditation Garden art quilt that I am basing on the energy field of a friend that I call a “Sky Warrior“. It will end up being quite embellished with my current style of buttons and beads, but I thought that it might be interesting for you to see how one of my earlier sky maps looked.

“Star Map”, (44.5″W x 39″T, or 113 cm W x 99 cm T) was created in 1985. It was during a time period when I has been adding hundreds of small, hand appliqued pieces to my quilts. A friend of mine had commissioned a jacket for her mother that had  navy with white hand quilting on it. The quilting had a lot of imaginary constellations on it. I think that at about the same time, this art quilt was being made, too.

As a child, I loved looking at the stars. I grew up out in the country, and there was little light pollution, so you could see how many stars really are in the night sky. I also liked “connect the dot” pictures when I was young. It was always amazing to me how a picture could be formed out of a bunch of little dots, as I had not then leaned how to “see” the picture without the lines being added. However, as I learned about constellations in school, I was always disappointed that there were not more dots! How can you make a lion out of such few little specks? Thus, this own personal star map quilt was born where I could have all the dots I wanted.

Detail of star in "Star Map", a hand appliqued, hand quilted contemporary art quiltHere is a view of one of the star in this three star map. You can see that there is quite an energy field behind this one, with lots of gaseous plumes coming out around it. I imagine that travel around this star would be pretty bumpy if you were to get too close. Behind all of the circles are more stars and galaxies, just as behind the bright stars you can see in the real night sky, there always seems to be stars that you can sort of see, but not quite. For me, this is more like what I would have wanted in those constellation maps I studied as a child. Here are LOTS of dots to connect to make a picture!

"Star Map" detail of a hand appliqued, hand quilted contemporary art quiltRunning down the middle of this next detail shot is one of the “lines” from the star in the upper right to the one down in the lower right. This line is more how I would have liked to see the connections in those old constellation illustrations. Here are lots of details for my child-like imagination to play with. It is important to notice the swirls of chaos to the left and right of the path. As long as you stay on the round stepping stones down the middle of the path, then you will have no problem traversing from one star to the next. However, should you stray off the path, then you’d fall off into impending doom, and who’d be there to save you is anybody’s guess!

I think that you can see that while I care a great deal about my art work, I certainly don’t take myself seriously. There’s quite a bit of room for lots of great, good fun as I play with my materials. I don’t set out to create “ART” (big capital letters accompanied by a loud fanfare from a full chorus!). I play and have fun and hopefully others will see the beauty in what I create as I see it through my eyes.

Which way do you approach your own art work? Is it a serious statement, an expression of playing with materials, or some other way of seeing what you do and how you do it?

Why not leave a comment as to your thoughts on this posting. Please take a minute, fill out the form below or by clicking on the “comments/no comments link” at the top of the posting, and then share your ideas with the rest of us. We all grow when we share our thoughts and impressions, so why not join our growing community of those who appreciate art quilts and textile arts. We’d love to hear from you!… and PLEASE tell like minded souls about this blog! The more readers and contributors, the more I write.

You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com (be patient as it loads; it’s worth it), my healing work at www.hearthealing.net and can find me on Google + , Facebook (for Transition Portals) Facebook (for Fiber Fantasies),  and Twitter.

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.

2 comments

  1. I really like this constellation piece…so close to the imagination! I’m with you. I don’t try to create “art”. I try to have fun and get ultimate enjoyment from the materials I use. Anything beyond that is a bonus.

  2. Dear Kathy, the fun that you put into your work is so-o-o evident in its appearance and what you write about it on your blog. Here’s to communing with our inner children and letting them out to play as much as possible. Creative air is good for them!!!

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