First Second Third

This image is one that I have been working on all Summer in dribs and drabs and pick up and put down, The initial impetus for starting and making this has been obscured over time. Sometimes this is the downside of working in a labor intensive medium. Unlike a watercolor painting or a sketch where one gets an idea and the artistic experience is intense and more immediate, this kind of labor (embroidery) can become a challenge to keep the process and the work itself fresh. However, one issue that I tackled in grad school was to work intuitively in terms of color choice, stitch choice and application of stitches - even utilizing applied (appliqued) parts of the image and allowing the piece to speak to me as the parts and design elements fell into place (composition). Prior to grad school, I mapped out the entire image, planned the color scheme and basically colored with thread. It was interesting to see the piece unfold but once the image had been worked out on paper, the stitching part was just work to be completed.

As for this piece ("first second third"), I am in that part of the process (and I do enjoy the process) where I am listening to my intuition as to placement of parts and colors and the narrative is scratching to be let go.

I know that I am getting to that certain point because I think of this piece even when I don't have it in my hands so there are nagging issues that I will resolve and tack down with each stitch.

I'm off to my drawers of floss to play with some colors.

Oh, and sorry that some of these images are sideways - not sure how that happened as I righted them prior to attaching them but I am not a tech savvy person - I am an embroidery person....