Monday, January 16, 2012

Color Blocking - Bussamente style

This is the working draft of the next color blocking quilt. I think I'm going nuts but I can't find the artist in any of my notes. I thought it was Bussamente but can't find him anywhere. Guess I'll have to dig out some of the scraps of paper that I write things on. This artist was a professor at Harvard and started painting after retiring. I know I didn't make this stuff up because I have the sketches and rough drafts. He worked in primary colors and used math to figure out the angles. This will teach me to put my documentation all in one place.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Modern Quilt Guild project for IQA

I've found myself hitting the wall on art quilt projects. Lots of ideas but very little inspiration coming or enthusiasm. I think the heat and drought of this past year drained all creativity from me. So I did what I always do, go back to the basics! I have this ridiculous desire to go back and review my geometry books. It was my favorite subject in school, besides goofing off. Modern artists have always fascinated me so I decided to try and figure out how they came up with their ideas. This simple looking quilt (62x62) took over a week to work out the proportions and the look of a Piet Mondrian work without just copying one of his. I had no idea that he and Bussamente (my next project) were mathematicians who became artists when they retired. They used their math backgrounds to develop their subject and then experimented with how color played off each other and effected mood. I love this piece. The orientation in the photo is incorrect. The long green strip on the right should be at the bottom. I also picked up a great book called Sacred Geometry. Lots of ideas in that one and it makes me look at everything as a geometric equation.