Study of Self -- Work in Progress

I don't know anything that is more of a Work in Progress than our own selves!

Recently the subject of abstract art came up in a conversation with some of my quilting friends.  Do you understand Abstract Art? 

I said "No, in most cases I have no idea what I am looking at."

Now when I am challenged to learn more about something, especially when it has something to do with quilts and quilting I am motivated to do a bit of research to "expand my horizons"!

Here is a article that might help to enlighten you, as it did me, on the subject of Abstract Art -- Art 101: Understanding Abstract Art  (just click on the underlined title to open a new window to read the article)

A 1960's "abstract" tessellations made with scrappy squares, or in those days "just a quilt for the bed"... (sorry the photo is not so great but it is a scan of a slide taken about 1967)

As a quiltmaker, most of my creativity is based on traditional quilting patterns and designs.  One of the earliest quilts I remember was made up of hexagons, pieced but not arranged in specific pattern combinations, it was made of fabrics cut and sewn from shirts, skirts, dresses, and apron scraps.  

the above quilt, a more modern form of the squares that are shown in the first photo This is one of my own quilt creations and one of my favourites -- colourwise -- to me I can see a landscape with all the colour that one might find with flowering shrubs and a  sun setting  sky, Iwould say  this is abstract art, even though when I made it I was not purposely creating abstract art.  It hangs in my bedroom...

A Hexagon quilt or a quilt made up of squares or rectangles, I think, is a good starting point to seeing abstract art.  First, as I learned recently, a hexagon and a square and a rectangle and also an equalateral triangle are all tessellations, which basically means a shape that is two dimensional that covers an area with no gaps or spaces.

 So you see how a hexagon when pieced with many other hexagon creates a tessellation?  Next when you add colour to those shapes, you open up a world of ideas -- forming groups of hexagons into representational shapes, flowers, diamonds, and waves of colours radiating out from the centre.   Random hexagons could be a form of abstract art, but IS the thoughtful placement of colour and even dividing the hexagon into smaller shapes to create diamonds and triangles to form a hexagon make it into a different form of art?  Hmmm, there's a question for someone who studies that sort of thing...

and this one, not abstract, just weird...  acrylic paint on unbleached cotton...

edited in to explain this quilt --  this is a quilt I created in 1998 that was inspired by images from a book called Strange Stains and Mysterious Smells by Terry Jones and Brian Froud pub 1996.  each image was hand drawn with acrylics onto cotton fabric and they are hand copies of images in the book.
Anyway, back to the idea of abstract art...  From what I understand, Abstract Art is whatever you want to see in it.  Now, art such as that done by Picasso, I am able to absorb and somewhat appreciate when I take the time to look at all the facets of it, but a piece such as Jackson Pollock produced, I thought was still somewhat beyond me until I carefully read the article that I suggested you read.  So then when I really make an effort to study it I can see the way the colours and splatter can resemble a randomly pieced patchwork quilt.  I begin to relate.  With no formal art training, I jumble through and try to understand...

So, now thinking of myself as a quilt ARTIST, I am able to start to understand that even making a traditional quilt block makes many of my quilts fall into the abstract category, I think, maybe...

So onto more discovery of my own self and what I like to do...  I ultimately enjoy being a Work in Progress!  How about you?  Do you want to discover how your idea of your craft and art has formed and is developing within you?