Erosion- Many Different Facets

e·ro·sion

əˈrōZHən/

noun

the gradual destruction or diminution of something.

I had to think long and hard about fear; I finally decided to focus on erosion.  Erosion can be applied to many areas of our lives...erosion of the beach at Lake Michigan..erosion of your health as you age...erosion of world-wide safety...so many things can gradually destruct creating fear.

My piece is inspired by an Edward Burtynsky photo shown below:

My piece is below. After creating the landscape, I used rust to create a tributary-like flow across the piece.  Some seed stitches finished it.

Enjoy!  Kathy

Topic for the next quarter (due June 30th)  is LEAVES. Anyway you want to think of them or the process!   Have fun, Chris

Fear

This was a challenge.  I could think of no huge fears aside from losing my powers to think and sew, so I was stymied for a while.  Then Peter told me about his experience of crawling under the condo building searching for some water-shut-off.  The unlit concrete crawl space, lined with pipes and wires and twists and turns nearly brought on an anxiety/claustrophobia attack for him, and I felt much the same as I heard the story.  So this was my attempt to re-create that dark maze --not so scary in fabric. (He suggested I call the finished piece "Call Before You Dig"...)  Oh, well.

Weaving and layering and doing some trapunto work to round the red pipes, and then sewing down all the overlapping woven layers was my big challenge this time.

Now that I have said this, I realize that perhaps my greatest fear is that I cannot get the picture connected to this post.  I'll keep trying.

FEAR

I have many fears but one that I have carried around most of my life is fear of being on a roller coaster and the car coming off the rails The blonde in middle is me screaming hehe!!!
I'm wanting to put a pre recorded card device under my head and when you press it there is a scream which will wail as only I can when scared hehe!! I enjoyed making this. I got a friend to draw it for me and appliqued the drawing on to the background. Thanks for these challenges they are great.
The challenges already posted are good can't wait to see the others.  

Fear

This photo is a bit darker than the quilt. My biggest fear is snakes and I still couldn't bring myself to make a quilt in that subject. My second fear is heights. I tried to portray looking down into a well, I hope you can at least get the impression. Started out with a piece of white cloth. Added the walls of the well and then attacked the piece with Shiva paints sticks.
Great to see all the Fear quilts, I think I set a tough theme.

Fear. What is happening to our oceans

I live on the ocean front, Vancouver Island B.C. Canada.

I have many concerns about the growing pollution in our oceans around the world.

The future of our fish stocks, the birds and mamals that live in our oceans is in jeopardy and very fragile.

My piece was hard to photograph so hopefully you can see the intent.

Secure

This has been an interesting challenge. I'm not afraid of spiders or snakes. Heights make me uneasy so I like to think of it as a healthy fear. What is hard to break free of to me are insecurities like sharing your work on a blog or at guild meetings. It's easy to be sure no one will like it but I think to grow a person needs to share and learn from others. We need to unlock those fears or rust in place and risk loosing opportunities to grow.

So here is my rusted hand painted "Secure in Secure" I was pretty excited to find locks small enough for this piece and an added bonus the say "Secure" on them.

 

FEAR - MINDLESS

FEAR – MINDLESS

While I have several fears, I think celebrating another birthday in March (and it was another landmark – 70!), made me focus on my aging body with its aches and pains.  Generally speaking I’m not afraid of growing old or of dyeing.  That doesn’t mean I’m ready to call it quits though.   But with so much focus in the media on how the “old” are such a drain on society and the medical system, I thought I would do my art piece on dementia.  Aren’t we all afraid of more than “just” forgetting where we put our keys!  What will the future hold for ME?

The background fabric is one of my happy hand dyes - in colour and brightness.  I drew a profile of my head and heat-cut it out of purple organza.  The thin strips are just a variety of leftover fabric.  And of course, the circles are cats-eye marbles!

Even though this piece is about fear, I used a happy background because I’m hoping that is how I will cope.  From my family’s point of view, they might choose a dark background, as that is how they will be coping with what might be my condition.  I chose organza for my profile because I think I will be disappearing from the person I used to be (and in fact now am) and it expresses my fading away both mentally and physically.  The strips represent the fact that I might not be able to think of words or be able to express what is deep inside me as none of the strips are joined; they are basically lines that just stop.  And of course, we all use the phrase “I must be losing my marbles”, so I took my kids marbles that I now use for tie dyeing, and photographed them, printed them on treated fabric and now have another image for my stash.  Really the only quilting I did aside from stitching my profile down and securing the strips of fabric and marbles, was writing the words who, what, where, when, why and how into the background as those will be the unanswered questions both I and my family will ask.

My husband’s stepmother suffered from dementia.  She lived to 91 and was just lost in her own world.  I once saw a “funny” card that simply said “Look at me.   I’m happy and I don’t even know what’s going on.”  That always made me think of her, but now I’m afraid that might become me too.

My mom always said “I don’t feel old as long as I don’t look in a mirror!”  She lived to be 89 and didn’t suffer from dementia.  She was a strong woman.  I miss her and hopefully I will follow in her footsteps.

Fear - Triskapachydermophobia

I am not afraid of spiders or snakes  - I just don't like them, especially when they appear out of nowhere.

However, I am afraid of being given some fabric, lace, floral trim, and sparkles and being told "I want this exact pattern with this exact fabric, this exact lace, this exact trim, and these exact sparkles - and I would really like you to add a chicken or three turquoise elephants and iron-on dark pink braid".