Photos and Not-Photos

When you look at a piece of art, your brain tries to make sense of it.

If it’s a photograph, your brain says, “Oh, I know what that is. It’s an actual thing. It’s like something I’ve seen that’s real.” Like a photo of rippling water.

When you look at something that’s not “real,” — that is a pattern or an abstraction — your brain says, “Wait a minute. That’s not real. What’s going on here!”

When the photo and the not-photo are side by side in the same picture plane, that can create a whole new reality.

The experience of trying to make sense of what I was seeing, sitting next to a pond in rural Georgia, looking at the water’s surface, was the inspiration for “Looking Below the Surface.”

I divided the quilt surface in two.

The left is a photograph I shot of the pond, transferred to fabric. (I use a manual method to transfer my photos, starting with a paper laser copy then pulling the toner off the paper with acrylic gel medium onto the fabric. It’s very hands-on and messy;  I love the process and the results.)

The right half is all pattern, representing shafts of light I imagined below the water. I created it by collaging monotype-printed tissue paper, then stenciling and overpainting pattern onto the collage.)

Creating with textiles became the perfect vehicle for exploring an idea that interests me. I like thinking about life that’s below surfaces, that’s not immediately apparent.

Art can express an idea, or prompt your brain to do a bit of work!

And, when that art becomes part of your home, it’s my hope to provide new things to discover and think about over time.

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Or visit her other blog - BobbiBaugh