My AP Studio Art Concentration

As some of you already know, during my senior year of high school I took College Board's daunting year long AP Studio Art course, and I barely survived. Fortunately, I did manage to force out a pretty interesting concentration in the process. If you don't know, a concentration is a body of work all relating to a specific medium and concept. The Studio Art portfolio requires you submit a concentration as a part of your portfolio. I knew that it was supposed to have some sort of profound concept to go along with it, but honestly I started this series with just an intense urge to work with a material I had hardly used before- fabric.

I don't know exactly why I gravitated so strongly towards this medium, but something about the perceived "permanence" of the textiles was very appealing to me. Using fabric is different than drawing on regular paper. Its much more durable and forgiving at times..you can do a lot of different things to fabric to change it's appearance without the fear of it falling apart. It also opened me up to an exciting variety of colors, patterns and textures, and a new way to approach creating a cohesive image. Still, I used many of my "traditional" art skills while experimenting with this new unknown. I manually painted in the details of many of the works that were further embellished with stitch work and applique. On some pieces I even used a few oil pastels, which had a great effect on even the loudest of patterns.

Speaking of using traditional techniques, all of the subjects in this concentration were done directly from life observation. Yes, I was a crazy person that forced people to pose for me while I hastily sketched them on a tiny scrap of fabric. I drew peers, strangers, friends, or anyone that held still long enough for me to copy them down.

"Ten and a half Chins" acrylic paint and scraps of textile. Machine stitched.

"Eight your Face" Acrylics on textile. Machine stitched.

"The Mirror" The only piece that didn't include sewing.  Modeling paste, gesso and acrylics on textile.

"Seis Face" One of my favorites of my concentration. India ink and acrylics on textile scraps. Machine stitched.

"The Waiting Clock" Textiles and thread.

"A Guitar Man"Acrylics on textile.

"John's Silk Beard" Oil pastel on textile and (silk) thread.
Machine and hand stitched.

"Lend Me Your Ears" Oil pastel on textile scraps.
Machine and hand stitched.

 I discovered the concept behind my concentration after I had nearly completed it. After I put all the images together at once, I realized that I had created something that sort of  resembled a quilt. This was eerily appropriate because life itself is kind of like a quilt. It has blunt patterns and repetition, but it also has vibrant colors and intricate details subtly sewn in with the threads of time. Tiny pieces taken from here and there all add up to one big picture. I like that.


The originals are not currently for sale, but high resolution 8 1/2" x 11" prints are now available. Contact me for more info.

About Frankenquilt

I wrote this nearly a year ago on Tumblr, before I realized it was a microblogger. This blog post belongs here, where people care about reading. Frankenquilt hasn't grown any since this was written, btw. But he still slumbers restlessly. Expect more from this monster as it hungers for revenge!

Like many awful abominations created in the name of science, it began innocently as a mission of discovery. But once I began my horrid experiment I realized that something had seriously gone awry with my project. I had created a monster.
It's so ugly. Get out your pitch forks and torches. Here comes the cankerous Frankenquilt.

 Not that I'm saying that ugly is necessarily a bad thing. It's ugly in a badass gnarly evil kind of way.

 It's a crazy quilt thats made out of all the scraps I've been hoarding for the past year or two. It's  constructed in a really sketchy way, honestly. I just sewed together a bunch of weird pieces and shapes, leaving no scraps wasted.

I even used "batting," mostly because I forgot that traditional crazy quilts don't have batting in them. And by batting I mean, sometimes it was the soft cottony stuff. But other times, because Frankenquilt is evil and made up of many unholy things, I implemented really tiny "crap scraps" of fabric and bits of string that had been collecting near my sewing machine. And pretty much anything else that I felt like putting on the inside of Frankenquilt. Use your imagination.

I also want to mention that Frankenquilt has not one, but two hideous personalities. One side of the quilt is loud and annoyingly busy patterns, while the back is made of mostly felt and other gross things I have in abundance.

 

Because I thought the back was too ugly (even for Frankenquilt) I got the idea to start sewing in "graffiti" to fill the plain spots.The quotes I chose to embroider were ones that I particuarlly liked or related to. Or also maybe because they were  just badass song lyrics. Can you pick out any that you recognize? Some of them are really cliche and cheesy, which is probably why I love them.

The most frightening thing about this monstrosity is that it's growing. One day, it will be large enough to wrap around my whole body. What I have now, though, is a modestly large hand towel.... sooooooo sinister!