Painting finished

When I was working on "Joseph's Colourful Coat", I let this picture stand unfinished for a long time. I just wasn't sure how to go on. A few weeks ago I went on with it and changed the bottom part completely. I cannot tell you what it is, I just shmeared the oils onto it and enjoyed the shades. Then I decided that I did not like the background; a shining kimono in front of a night-blue sky just seemed too pathetic; I dissolved it into blue patches and made the border between the coat and the background less strict. I dimmed down the patches and brightened up the red.

-- The End --

She's not gonna do it, is she???

The Joseph's coat will be finished this afternoon.
What is this woman up to?














For Heaven's sake, what are you doing?








Now, this can dry nicely.



Aftermath, February 3rd

When I look at it now after drying, the acrylic paint has become darker; it is not obvious at first sight, but it is stiff and quite disturbing, yes, it does look a little shocking. Right, and this is intended. It is to make this old, old tale come alive. I had the intention to create a piece of evidence. A crime happened. And crimes go on. Although I use symbols of judaism, I try to move away from a one-sided point of view.
Part of the crime was to abuse parental care for selfish revenge. The killing is pretended. Deception. Another crime.
I created this as a kind of offering. I have sewed for hours and hours and then spilt acrylic paint over it. This is my offering. As I hang it up, I see it as a kind of magic reminder, a fetish of parental love and mourning. And I erect it as a memorial of this.

Out in the sun

Today I took the opportunity to photograph the piece outside in good light. Just a few parts of the sleeves and parts of the right edge need fusing. Small gaps between the patches will be filled with wool embroidery.

The pink frame is to suggest that the patch inside is a picture. Well, it is an abstract picture. I want the spectator to see each patch as a possible picture, although many of them were created by an artist named Serendipity. There are two real pockets left in about the middle. They are open on the back and very helpful while quilting the parts in the center region of the piece. I bet you sometimes sighed "If only there was an opening closer to the middle". Okay, I did that on purpose.
I wish I could have seen snooker last night. How O'Sullivan beat Selby. Hope they will replay it.

Young goats and a puddle of blood

Joseph's brothers took the blood-stained coat back as an evicence of his death. They killed a young goat for the purpose. Here, the chosen goat rests by a water with a weird colour, taken from a fabric in Japanese style.
I cut a paper stencil for the goat and tried to transfer acrylic paint on the cloth. That was not all that satisfying. So I cut out another silhouette and fused it to the red background. This cloth turned out to be very fringy, even when fused. So the result is not quite what I wanted it to be.

This morning, my little parcel came, containing my Windsor & Newton Gouaches. And the bill. 42 Euro = about 56 $. Outch. But the pink and purple are very close to the desired shades. And there is gold, a beautiful spring green, deep cool blue, black, red. Another boxing day!
I'll start saving from now on. Because my mind is eased.

Olive tree from Tuscany, I took this picture in 2002 in Pieve d'Elici near Lucca. Hello, Darlene, this one is for you!

More quilting on Joseph's coat

One of the Pharao's dreams were the cows. I surrounded it by fanatic quilting. Fusing saves time, I put it into quilting. Also the wheat spikes are surrounded by straw-like structures. The calligraphy is a little pathetic, it says: "Time will not undo guilt. Expiation can never end unless the guilt is forgiven. Only victims and their heirs can forgive. Guilt is not inherited, but responsibility continues the ties between the heirs of the criminals and the heirs of the victims." (schuld wird nicht durch zeit gesühnt, nur vergebung hebt sie auf. vergebung wird nur gewährt durch den, der die tat erlitt - oder seine erben. nicht schuld erben die nachfahren der schuldigen, aber doch verantwortung. so bleiben sie gebunden bis zur vergebung)
This criticizes a specific German point of view because too many people in our country like to say: "There has to be an end to remembering at last -- forgiven and forgotten..." But they don't have the moral high ground to say so.

I added a fused and appliquéed image. The lion attacks a man. The field behind them will be filled red. This looks much better than the painted parts, I'll go on with this technique in the future. Although it takes quite some work. I found the lion on an Egyptian stone carving and added a human shape like I thought it might fit, from my own imagination, made a drawing on paper, perforated the lines and used a little powder bag with blue pigment to copy the lines onto the cloth, made the drawing complete with a fine brush pen, ironed Wonder Under onto the cloth, cut the silhouette -- yes, I cut the paper, Melody, sorry! -- and fused it on. Then I fixed the outline with small stitches. -- I demonstrated the method on white cloth, but initially carried it out on the orange material.

Fusing is great

Today I tried the fusing method. Very helpful! Melody gives so much advice on her blog how to do these things. I cannot look back on years of quilting experience, as many of you can. To you, this must be looking like a kid's work. But this is how I feel: Playful and full of joy about my experiments. I put it out on the corridor to take the photo. I'm doing all the quilting by hand, because Joseph's sister did not have a sewing machine. Well, she did not have Wonder Under either.

Painting and sewing

Last night I've been working till 2 a.m., I continued work on the painting. I just can't sleep since full moon, because the HUM is back, the disturbing thing that most people do not hear, and the rest is agonized. I don't hear it all the time, but it seems to be getting worse. Okay. So I paint until I can sleep.

While watching Snooker, I've carried on with Joseph's coat. Potiphar's wife. The brothers talking about what to do with their prisoner. A seal of red paint or blood.
The well he was thrown into. The Desert.

Should be weaving, but I'm stitching

News from Joseph's coat: 3 new pictures are being added.
No.1: Joseph's brothers are pleading for food in front of the Egyptian officials.








No.2: Wheat spikes, upright and bent
No.3: The pyramid
In the big picture, the fingerprint is there, evidence of crime. So the whole story will be in the coat already, in parts written/drawn with blood -- patterns of destiny.
But I want my spectators to feel free in their own discoveries. Because whatever you see in these pictures -- you are right, your vision is as least as valid as the artist's intention.

Today my man cooked the dinner and let me create. He is such a darling!

Some progress

Painted and quilted: Small patches on "Joseph's coat", acrylic paint on cotton, and a small piece of fur which "refurs" to: 1. The lie of Joseph's brothers about him being killed by a wild beast, 2. Jacob (Joseph's father) had betrayed his father by stealing his brother's blessing.
And in order to carry out this cheat, his mother Rebecca had wrapped goat fur around his wrists and neck in order to pretend he was his hairy brother.
A lesson on Karma.
The patches are painted by coincidence. Then I looked at them and found landscapes, which I cut out and fixed them on the background.

And how far did we get with the painting?
Unfortunately the photo is very dark, the flashlight pic was worse. This picture is going very slowly, different from the first and second version. I colour the patches with a painting knife and acrylics; then I look at them to find landscapes and faces in them and work these out in oils.

The insect survived a frosty night, and the painting grows slowly

On the picture of yesterday's posting there was this drone fly -- she (he?) survived and came back this morning to visit my last flowers. This fly won't give up until she gets killed by the frost. We should do so.

Work on Joseph's Colourful Coat goes very slowly. But it has to. Coincidence is the real painter. I wait until faces and landscapes appear, and make them more distinct. I have to be careful so the spectators will see more and more faces and landscapes in the squares, the more they look at them.

Another version will be a piece of fiber art. I started creating the base out of my husband's old clothes, and while sewing I pricked my finger and so had the first traces of blood on the cloth. Hope it's not gonna get more weird, after all I will use acrylic paint and not real blood.