Explorations Episode 15: I Can't Believe I'm Doing This

Explorations Episode 15:  I Can't Believe I'm Doing This

I can't believe how long it's taken this piece of art to reach this point, and how many months of effort I've put into it.  It's become the most time-consuming art project of my life, by far.  But I'm starting to like the way it's looking.

When my daughter Leah was a little kid, she was famous for her art fits.  An art fit was the state she would get into if the work of her hands did not match the creation in her mind.  One time, for example, she tried to make a kid-size car out of corrugated cardboard.  Her little hands were not strong enough to wield scissors heavy enough to cut up a big cardboard box, and after mighty effort, she devolved into a fury of anguish, her face flushing to a reddish purple and her eyes spewing tears.  That was an art fit.

Leah has since learned to channel her artistic visions in more productive ways, and I couldn't be prouder of the number of times she's won prizes for her work as Creative Lead at Shapchat.  You can see her doing that here, in late May 2018:

 https://www.facebook.com/diane.cadrain.5/videos/2082618741748931/

Leah's attitude toward art must be hereditary.  I feel the same way.  If a vision is strong enough, and compelling enough, I too strive mightily to bring it to fruition.

This image.  It's been years since I first started wanting to  turn it into a fiber art creation:

Now I finally have a chance, because I've been juried into an invitational art exhibit that requires me to make a 50 x 30 piece.  I'm recreating this image, but I want to tell you, it's been a long struggle to get this piece to where it is today.

I started the process in early March, but started this piece itself on March 23.  It went through many, many iterations, many materials, and many attempts.  I'm not going to reiterate it all here because this is Episode 15.  Work on this actual piece starts at about Episode 5.  If you want to find out how many versions I've been through, feel free to take a look starting at that episode.

(BTW, I'm documenting all this because that's one of the requirements of this exhibit).

Anyway this is where the piece is now:

I took a piece of silk chiffon and painted it the colors of the foam and stitched 150,600 rows of stitching into it.  Then I took a steamer to it and shrunk it:

Before shrinking

After shrinking

So it's developed all these delightful puckers, looking more and more like the foam.  Now I'm layering it onto the felted background which stands in for the sand ripples:

I'd already used iridescent thread to look like the bubbles floating in each trough of sand.  Now I'm taking nylon tulle and sewing more bubbles into it.  My intention is that each tiny trough will be two-dimensional, with bubbles resting on the bottom, and more bubbles "floating," as sewn into a piece of tulle, above them

 This piece of tulle has had "bubbles" sewn onto it with iridescent thread.  I plan to pad the high points of each sand ripple, so that each shadowed trough is a depression with bubbles appearing to be suspended in water above it.

This is what the trough looks like with the tulle suspended above it.  You can't really see the bubbles resting on the bottom.  Not sure what I'm going to do about that, but I'm trying here.  Can't believe how hard.