Tapestries
Picasso said ,"I find"!
I didn't start out to make tapestries from prints found in oil-on-water
designs. I found a book in a book store about marbleizing paper
as a craft, and wanted to learn how. I had long admired those
intricate end-papers in fine books.
But somehow everything gets to be "grist for my mill", especially when I'm not seeking, only playing, I do my best finding. Soon I wondered what would happen if, instead of laying papers on top of water as instructed, I folded them loosely and simply "dived" in. It was lots of fun...more action...and I was getting an entirely new look to my designs. Some seemed beautiful, others weren't much and I threw them away. (If accident is performing for you you have to take what you get.)
And I never thought these accidental designs would be much more than decorative pieces of paper, trimmings for something else perhaps, even though I could see a certain art quality in those which survived the trash.
I began to see imaginary landscapes in them, rivers of color, then mountains; very similar to the way you amuse yourself with clouds in the sky... of course that's not really a flock of sheep up there, even if it's a handy way of sorting them out for descriptive purposes. I was simply fascinated by the surprise element since no two were ever exactly alike. Besides I have an affinity for water being an aquarian by birth...
Then it happened! I saw not merely rivers and mountains, but TAPESTRIES woven of wool replacing the drooling paint, room SIZE
54" by 46"