Assignment 4: Narrowing and Broadening My Approach

Narrowing and broadening my approach

The obvious way I have narrowed my approach to my subject is by looking inward and how I feel about the effect of the menopause on me. For this I have photographed myself and played with the images of the effect of gamut of emotions I felt and sometimes still feel. It is narrowing my approach but also somehow freeing me up to take more risks with my work. It is a strange dichotomy which I cannot explain.

embroidery sampling

The narrowing of the subject matter allows me to take a look at how I would like to represent images with different fabrics and styles. In earlier assignments I had been concerned that I hadn't really found my voice or style. However now my style is coming through without me even being concerned about it, as though it is second nature. This is probably how it should be without me worrying about how close I am following the course detail.

The broadening areas are challenges to myself in scale, taking on creating a quilt is a hefty task considering I have never made one before. However I slowly looked at ways I could make this very personal. I dyed my old duvets and sheets for fabric, cut my own clothes in to backing pieces. It is important to me that these are old items of mine as I am trying to reflect something that happened to me. The personalisation of my work is something that is resonating very strongly at the moment.

working through to a larger scale

Focus in to areas

Whilst I have been working with materials I have also played with ideas in my sketchbook and linked in with my critical review. I started watching old You Tube videos of short documentaries on artists and their daily lives, Tracey Emin was one of them. She spoke about the influence of Louise Bourgeois and how she worked from a very personal standpoint, something Emin also does. This was very interesting in how they felt something of themselves was always in their work. Again these insights helped me with confidence to continue with the story I want to tell.

Sketchbook page - collage

Anxiety & tired poses from sketchbook

My sketchbooks are very experimental at the moment and show a range of ideas some of which work, I have played a lot more with collage and this has lead on to the applique within the central image in my quilt. 

 When creating smaller samples with embroidery and applique I knew that I wanted to scale up the ideas I was working with to one dominating the quilt.

The smaller samples of felt and embroidery have given me ideas on how to tell a narrative within the quilt. This is something which links back directly with my proposal, to represent the emotions and feelings during the day, weeks, months or years.

By creating a quilt it means that I have upscaled to proportions that I have not looked at before in my textiles. It is quite a challenge and I have not finished the stitching off yet fully but wanted to show at this stage how the work is progressing. In the way a painter often colours the paper before creating a painting I dyed my fabric prior to starting work. I feel by doing this it really helped strengthen my colour ways and allowed me to dive in to the work and be less conservative.

Looking back from the beginning of my last project I would not have thought my work would have lead my down this path but I am really enjoying it. I am stopping many times to reflect about what I want from my work and how to see it in a new way.

Before dyeing

Dyed t-shirt

As well as looking at the quilt and sampling I have also started to look at other projects which can link more with menopause and the reaction to it within the workplace. Whilst the quilt is very linked with night sweats and tiredness I wanted to look at more work related items. I dyed a dress in shades of reds and pinks dip-dying it to build up colour and tie-dyed a t-shirt too.

After dyeing

Too many women going through the menopause have thought of giving up work just to get through the day as their symptoms are often unbearable. So this is something I want to highlight more in my future work. I went off on a tangent to envisage and think about embroidering on top of the dyed garments. However this is for the future but it is definitely an avenue I want to progress.