Canyonlands

When Ben and I visit Moab, Utah, we really enjoy seeing the historic rock art, the interesting pictographs that the ancient people painted on the rocks and the petroglyphs they scratched into the rocks.  Our last visit was in March 2018 and I made a point of photographing some of these old artworks, thinking I'd like to create a piece of art of my own featuring them.  

In September of 2018 I chose seven of the rock art images in my photographs and made stencils of them using freezer paper.  Using those stencils and Shiva oil paint sticks, I transferred the images to some cream colored fabric that I had darkened a bit by dying it with black tea. 

I liked what I had made and gathered up some fabrics I might use with them.  They were all "special" fabrics which I loved; some from the fabulous Moab quilt shop, some I had dyed or painted myself, and some dyed or otherwise created by others.  I was excited about this progress but I had other projects going so I tucked them all into a box marked "Canyonlands" and saved them for later. 

Well, "later" finally came a few weeks ago.  I cut the images into blocks and framed each block with fabric.   

 

Then I put the blocks and fabrics up on the design wall and considered them for several days. 

I decided I needed some coordinating blocks so I made some, which you can see on the right side of the photo below. What I really liked about those blocks was the pop of blue I put in each one.  I wanted to make more but I had just a few scraps of that hand-dyed blue fabric left, so I could only make four smaller blocks.  I framed them in the same light fabric I used for the pictographs; you can see those four little blocks surrounding the pictograph in the middle of photo.  

Then it was time to begin connecting all these pieces together into something wonderful.  For several days I stared at the design wall as I moved things around, took photos, added fabrics, and generally tried to make some order from chaos.  

Along the way, I decided to make the small blocks with the pop of blue a bit bigger by framing them with some beautiful batik fabric. 

When you're working on a puzzle like this you have to take your time and just play.  You have to live with the uncomfortable feeling of something not being solved quite yet, and just keep messing around until you start to feel happy about what you're seeing.  All the while you're considering how large this piece might end up and what that means in terms of its purpose.  Some pieces turn into table runners or all purpose mats, some get mounted onto canvas like a painting, but most end up as wall hangings.  This one is looking like it might end up as an "over the sofa" size wall hanging.  

After three days of this, I finally got to a point where I had the basic structure of the main blocks nailed down and here's where we stand at the moment.  I'm feeling good about how the eye moves around from block to block, how the different fabrics are pulling together, and I'm still loving those pops of blue.  Next I'll "fill in the gaps" with fabric but you can see that I'm already jumping ahead to see if I can use another fabric with a similar blue as a bottom border. 

I'm just about to head back into the studio to see what happen next!   

It's a good day to be in the studio since the weather is "quite windy," cold, and a bit damp with snow showers this morning and more expected soon.  I tired Turbo out with a two mile walk up in the park this morning, so we're snuggled in at home for a few hours before we head out again.