Conclusion

I think I hate surrealism…………….

I want something that avoids the cheesy, overused tropes of surrealism. I want it to rely on subtle psychological tension rather than a chaotic junk drawer of clocks and floating eyeballs. Up until now that was exactly what I was doing…..faces in trees, eyes in the sky, portals to nowhere, gold tears. Those are basically all the things I hate yet I was using them. 

I did hear back from the art museum. 

This is what they said, “ I want you to create something that inspires you. If it's something that's going to cause stress or anxiety, like the first submissions, then I definitely want you to shift your focus. Please continue with what feels right to you and I'm sure it will be amazing.”

Of course the problem then becomes where do I shift my focus? I’ve done a lot of reading about surrealism for people who hate surrealism. That’s my category. That means making something that does not scream surrealism. I guess something much more realistic with just a hint of something off. I guess that would be subtle surrealism. I don’t want to make something just to make something. This would take months of work. The show theme is Landscapes of the Unconscious which I view as dreams and illusions. Here’s my 2 ideas.

First a Hopper like idea. I love his work. I love the implied desolation.

The second idea is a Raven. I’ve worked on this one more.

I like both ideas. I finally quit asking if something is surreal enough. I want subtle. I don’t want faces where they don’t belong to just create something weird. I don’t want eyeballs or portals everywhere. Those things are not me. I did develop some trolley ideas, but I don’t want to do 2 trolley pieces.

What do you think? 

Thanks for reading.

Chris

I figured out why I’m struggling so much with the surreal show idea

I keep making images of human faces of women trees or eyes in the sky. I am not a portrait person. Sure I made one portrait that won the recycle show, but that’s not me at all. I like architecture. So the question is what was I thinking? Apparently I wasn’t really thinking clearly.  Plus the woman tree and eye in sky ideas are pretty cliche. I never want to be a cliche person. I would need something that fits my personality and these images that I’ve developed are not me at all. I think that’s why I’ve been struggling with this for so long and trying ideas that are all pretty much the same. That’s why nothing is working.

I wrote to the art museum and asked if I can change my idea from the approved ones. If not I will withdraw from the show. I can’t work on something for months that does not excite me. No wonder I’ve been making myself and you crazy all these months.

Here’s the latest of the current face thing and another idea I had along the way. Nothing original with either one….still faces and stairs and doorways.

Thanks for reading.

Nearly there

I’ve deleted all my other image ideas from my iPad so I think I’m sticking with this one for the surreal show. I just need to edit the images to get rid of AI cauliflower clouds. I don’t know which is worse….lollipop or cauliflower clouds. I would never do either. So here’s some images where I’m trying to stick with a lighter overall image. I want high contrast so it can be seen across the room. That’s one of the reasons I’m going with grayscale except for the door. And yes the clock numerals are purposely wrong. 

So decisions are things like….how many crows, what kind of clouds in the bottom of the quilt, do I need clouds at all in the bottom of the image, how to simplify the branches, should this be made at 30 by 40 or 24 by 30?

I’m done for now. I need to get plastics out for the recycle piece. 

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Maybe I should go back to the beginning of all of this surreal show stuff

My first instinct for a quilt was based on this image that I created years ago. I don’t know why I left that idea behind and moved onto the woman tree thing. I should have stuck with this idea I think. It’s not exactly what was approved, but it does have a woman, trees, and birds. 

Here’s the original and my first sketch. 

This keeps popping up in my mind so I just played with this idea some more. I thought the crows should be flying to the vortex.

So this has evolved into this one below. I think grayscale is good for a dream. It needs editing, but as art quilters we can do that. I would have to be careful with values.

So should I stick with the woman tree or go back to my first idea? Help appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

Chris