No blogging for over a week and now I'm posting twice in 12 hours!! I hurt my wrist last week and was unable to do much for a couple of days. Happily it's back to normal and I was able to complete this piece which I call "Flower Power Revisited". Starting with a flower garden doodled with Tsukeniko inks and a comment from my friend that it was shaped like a flower power bug, my design turned into a beetle car driving across a quilted 'road' leaving behind a trail of flowers. Along the top of the car I embroidered the words "when will they ever learn?" Does anyone remember that song? I'll give you a hint - it has 'Flowers' in the title. With shiva paintstiks and my own homemade stencils I stencilled more flowers and words like 'peace', 'love', freedom', happiness'. Does anyone remember the songs of "Hair" the musical? When I began, the piece was kind of whimsical but it soon took a turn in the road just like the car itself which I placed on a slightly downward route heading off the quilt. In an earlier post I talked about the philosophy behind this piece. I guess in these days of wars, oil spills, consumerism, instability, destruction of the environment and temperature change, I wonder what kind of movement can bring us out of it this time.
Most of my pieces have a message but usually it is a subtle one. My concern for the environment often results in quilts depicting my own connection with nature - I believe that encouraging people to feel connected to nature is the best way to save our natural world and ultimately our existence. The message in this piece is still a bit subtle I think.
Here is a photo of the funky fabric I used as backing.
How great this is....the song is "Where have all the flowers gone"...I remember Peter, Paul and Mary's version. Do I date myself? Yep, I was a hippie in that generation...did the sit-ins in college and remember the 1st earth day. For me, your piece reminds me of the ideals we had and now I am very conservative and hold on to a lot of them. Great job.
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