…See You In My Nightmares…

draft one of BA paper

Here is what i have so far for my paper.  The part that I am having the biggest problem with is the statement of problem.  I’ve read samples but its still difficult for my to create one of my own. Is it supposed to be similar to my artist statement? Well once again input is greatly appreciated.

 

I. Artist Statement

The simplest implied vision can inflict the greatest amount of fear. The mystery in something can cause more fear than what the same image with greater detail can. This is why I plan to use black silhouettes on white backgrounds to narrate nightmare imagery on large usable quilts.

The narration of stories through quilting allows me to follow in the tradition of story telling used the slave quilts of my ancestors. The use of black and white fabric to create imagery serves a couple of purposes.  First it reinforces our preconceived thoughts of story telling in books which are traditional written with black on white paper. Most importantly the black and white provoke unconscious meanings. The two can be interpreted to imply race, good vs. evil, purity vs. sin, or the known vs. the unknown all of which force the viewer make there own conclusions about what is happening in each image.

The thought of mysterious frightening stories being communicated on bedding is also to both confront and illicit more of these fears. Late at night when the shadows in our room materialize into monsters, or blood thirsty killers we hide under the safety of out blankets only to look down and realize we are hiding underneath the things we fear the most.

II. Introduction

 

 

A. Introduction

 

Kanye West and Lil Wayne say it best, “…see you in my nightmares…,” (West, 2008, track 10).

B. Statement of Problem

C. Goals and Objectives:  Process and Conceptual

1. Process

i.      Effectively use large screens on whole cloth to create one large recognizable image on quilt fronts.

ii.      Use silhouettes cut out of black fabric and applied to white fabric to visually narrate nightmares.

iii.      Emphasize that the nightmares are being presented on a quilt by precisely sewing around the cut out images allowing for a small amount of fray and using echo stitching.

 

2. Conceptual

i.      Follow in the tradition of the story-telling quilts created by slaves in the antebellum south.

ii.      Project nightmare imagery on something that is used as comfort from nightmares.

iii.      Use the ambiguity that simple black on white silhouettes posses to allow the viewer to personally relate the images on the quilts to the mysterious dark figures in their own nightmares.

 

D. Definition of Terms

Silhouette – a two-dimensional outline of an object, usually filled in solidly with black

Muslin – a thin cotton fabric

Nightmare –  1. a frightening or terrifying dream

2. an experience, situation, or object that resembles a terrifying dream

Appliqué – ornamental pieces of fabric that is sewn or otherwise applied to a larger piece of fabric

 

 

 

 

 

III. Review of Literature

A. Influences of Other Artists and Types of Art.

There is a large difference in the silhouettes that have been traditionally produced in the past and the silhouettes that I have chosen to project in my work.  My silhouettes are not taken directly from a sitter the cast shadow of an object like they were in eighteenth century shadow art or in shadow puppets; they are drawn in reference to real life but I control their content and thus I control what is given to the audience. Anne Wagner had this to say about Kara Walker’s work, which is also illustrative silhouettes, “…Walker had no sitters; thus they cast no shadows, they had no bodies. Each of her characters is both an invention and a citation:  each is cut from a freehand drawing into shapes whose sheer vitality and obscenity reanimate and darken racial stereotypes,” (Wagner, 2009, 95). While my silhouettes do not serve the same function as Walkers to “reanimate and darken racial stereotypes,” I would say that the goal of my silhouettes is to reanimate and darken the fear that nightmares deliver.

In my work I have chosen to use silhouettes to force the viewer to place themselves in the scenes of my choosing using only the black as the positive space and the white of the negative space to guide them to a meaning. In the essay by Wagner, she describes the function of silhouette imagery as exhibited through the works of Kara Walker, in a similar manner.  “Silhouettes speak an economical language of substitution and erasure…Such an image trusts its viewers (their desire, their fantasies) to bring its blank blackness (back) to life (Wagner, 2009, 94).”

The positive space that the mind perceives as an image is not an image at all; it provides no details visual details of the object, just its outline.  Silhouettes rely on this outline, filled in with solid black to provide an immense amount of impact. “For such skiagrams derive their descriptions not from concrete and material beings, but from an ephemeral bodily substitute or byproduct, shadow. The silhouettist traces an outline, the edge of a pool of darkness as it was caught on some intervening vertical plane.  From such a temporary effect comes hard and fast distinction: black versus white. What is shown is not a body, but how a body blocks the light.  That the schema is reductive=that it conflates presence and absence-is overshadowed by the sheer drama of the forms, which result: time and touch and the transitory yield to what Edmund Burke called the ‘power of black,’(Wagner, 2009, 94).”

 

IV. Summary

A. Self-Evaluation and Reflection.

1. Degree to Which the Exhibition Satisfied Goals and Objectives

2. Future Work Suggested by this Body of Work.

V.  Reference List – APA

 

West, K., Bhasker, J., Wilson E., & Carter, D. (2008). See You In My Nightmares. On 808s and Heartbreak [CD]. Place and record label

 

Wagner, A. M. The Black – White Relation (2009). In I. Berry, D. English, V. Patterson, M. Reihhardt (Ed.), Narratives of a Negress (pp. 91-101). New York, New York: Rizzoli International Publications.

BA Artist Statement

Here is the artist statement that i wrote for my BA show please please please leave any suggestions or revisions if you have them.

 

 

The simplest implied vision can inflict the greatest amount of fear. The mystery in something can cause more fear than what the same image with greater detail can. This is why I used black silhouettes on white backgrounds to narrate nightmare imagery on large usable quilts.

The narration of stories through quilting allows me to follow in the tradition of story telling used the slave quilts of my ancestors. The use of black and white in the printing of the imagery serves a couple of purposes.  First it reinforces our thoughts of story telling in books which are written in ink. Most importantly the black and white provoke unconscious meanings. The two can be interpreted to imply race, good vs. evil, purity vs. sin, or the known vs. the unknown all of which force the viewer make there own conclusions about what is happening in each image.

The thought of mysterious frightening stories being communicated on bedding is also to both confront and illicit more of these fears. Late at night when the shadows in our room materialize into monsters, or blood thirsty killers we hide under the safety of out blankets only to look down and realize we are hiding underneath the things we fear the most.

BA proposal

My first concept for my BA show in the fall is dealing with the idea of infinity. To do this I would make patterns that look as if they could go on forever. I would create wall hangings using the leap frog method, similar to the one I made this semester, that connect on all sides so that the original block is undetectable. The difference between negative and positive space would also play a large role because in my sample print there is no “negative space” – everything is utilized in the design.  For this same concept I have also given thought to creating M.C. Escher – type prints as well. After each of the prints was finished I would sew into all of the patterns. I assume each would be about the size of the printing tables in the fibers room.

The second concept for my exhibition in the fall is dealing with the skeletal system. Bones are the hardest materials that naturally occur in the body but they are considered relatively soft when in comparison to natural resources that exists outside of the body. To demonstrate the idea that bones aren’t as durable as we assume them to be I would construct an almost full human skeletal system excluding only the smallest of bones like the teeth and the bones of the inner ear out of dyed sheer fabric. I would use the sheer fabrics (most likely organza) and wire to make ribbon like shapes and those ribbon-like shapes would form the bones. Color would have a place in this also but as of now I’m not sure of its importance.

The last is deals with the history of quilts in African American story-telling. Like Faith Ringgold’s famous quilts from the late 80’s and early 90’s and quilts dating back to slavery I hope to tell a story through a large wall hanging. The setting would be in a black idealized urban neighborhood with a child’s kickball game being played in the street. The wall hanging would be about 20’ x 7’ in order to place the audience inside of the scene. All of the fabrics would be hand dyed and some aspects would be printed like the details on clothing and the lettering on buildings but the majority of the work would be detailed sewing and embroidery. I also imagine the edges of the wall hanging to fit the design and not to have a traditional rectangular shape.

 

After a little reflection  i am leaning more for either the first of second idea for my BA show.  for the first however i would make 3 or four leap frog pieces that are about 5′ x 6′. i think that if i’m going to go with the concept of infinity that larger pieces would be more effective.

for the second idea i would have to find a way to incorporate color…maybe like catagorizing the bones and designating colors accordingly. I aqlso want to look into the exoskeletons of bugs as well as the human skeletal system.

entire semester in a blog…

It has been a while since the last time i updated my blog and since the buffington dye project i have completed a new random print and leap frog print that was later sewn into.

book!

Mastering Precision Piecing by Sally Collins gives tips to beginners about how to choose fabric for quilts ans gives seven patterns also. What i was most interested in was the techniques she uses for intricate quilt piecing and ways to check the pieces to make sure the designs are symmetrical.

Last semester leap frog print

I never uploaded pictures from last semester of my leap frog and random prints so here is the leap frog. the random print will never be seen again unless you happen to come to my apartment and use the bathroom.