Making Marks

Black and White

These squares are another result of an exercise in the book, Finding Your Own Visual Language book by Jane Dunnewold, Claire Benn, and Leslie Morgan.

In the past I would have hesitated to create designs using just black and white. I was completely in love with and tied to color. However, after enrolling in the basic design class and being forced to use only black and white, I see that color can be a crutch.

I still love to use color, but I now understand that color can sometimes confuse the eye into thinking that something is a good design. There's no camouflaging a poor design when using black and white. The starkness allows me to see the bones of the structure. Now I know that color can flesh out the basic framework to create subtleties or ehance the underlying logic of the design.

I did use a black and white technique in the past. When I couldn't identify the problem, I would take a photo of a piece that wasn't working so well. Somehow the camera removed me from the piece. Then I would look at the image in black and white, and that gave a clearer picture of any design issues.

Serendipity

One thing that's so great about Cannon Beach is the Center Diamond, the coziest quilt shop I've been in. The people are so nice, and the selection of fabric runs from fun retro styles (Dick and Jane were featured recently) to sophisticated Asian designs (such as the Emperor's Collection). They also have a great selection of books, including the- difficult-to-find Beaney & Littlejohn series.

One of the things that caught my eye was Mary Jo Hiney's selection of silk fabrics. She has several color-way options, but this one really stood out for me. I like the juxtaposition of warmer, earth colors with vibrant blue and purple. I splurged and bought it.

Sometimes when we get home, there's so much to do that the quilt store treasures remain in the bag for a few days . . .  and this was no exception. When I finally unpacked the selection of silks, I put it on the bookshelf in front of my workspace as to remind myself of the gorgeous colors.

Then I looked down.

I saw a canvas I had been using to clean paint off  my brushes. It had a very similar color palette to the silk collection (the edges were lime green). The subconscious is amazing.