Thursday, June 25, 2015

How Do You Start A Series?

     Have you ever decided to start a series of art quilts or other types of art media? I so much enjoyed making my last composition and was pleased with the result (even though I haven't yet finished it), that I've decided to try a series based on the images in it. Rather than just get going making one piece after another with those images, I decided to think about why I liked the composition so much.
The Puppeteer

     One of the reasons is that the images had deeper meaning to me. The fossil ammonite symbolizes several things. It stands for cycles, antiquity, and messages, just to name a few. And the image of the girl (besides being my dear niece) symbolizes one who is on a journey to discover, to make change, and to become changed. So I decided to focus first on the words and a good way to start my series would be to make a mind map of the words. Choose a word that is central to the theme and then start free associating words that branch off of that main word. Once I did that on a scrap piece of paper, I had the idea to make it more artistic to make it more inspiring to me.
     I got out my sketchbook and drew out a fossil ammonite in the center with a gel pen and wrote the main word with an Inktense pencil on top of it. Then I wrote out the other words in other colors with Inktense pencils. After I had that part finished, I decided to add the other image to the sketchbook page of my niece and add words that pertained to her and noticed that there is some overlap between ideas of the two images. As time goes on, I'll probably add more words and images.
mind map

     The plan is that the mind map will help me design my series and spark ideas to provide deeper meaning to each art quilt that I make in the series.
I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find other art quilt blogs. Please make comments on their posts to let the artists know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.

13 comments:

  1. Great approach, Regina. I like it! I can't wait to see what some of the series will look like.

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    1. I read about mind mapping in several places and taught it science classes for note taking, too. This will be the first time I've seriously used it in my art.

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  2. When something has a rich deeper meaning, the series can go on and on...

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    1. It's important to me for my art to have a deeper meaning. I like for it to have hidden messages even if no else can see or understand them.

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  3. This mind map idea is an excellent idea! Sort of like a brainstorming session with yourself. I've often thought I should put more meaning into my quilts and this is a good way to start and go about it. Thank you for sharing. When I do a series it starts with one quilt, then if I really like it I will do another with the same basic pattern but changing it up.

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    1. There all sorts of ways to do mind maps. I was lucky with this one that my image had a spiral shape and fit with the word cycles, itself. That helped with the inspiration and the flow of it. But having symbolism and deeper meaning in my art are important to me.

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  4. A wonderful way to help you along the path your thoughts take you. I especially like the ammonites, as I was a Geology major in college

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    1. One of the sciences I taught in my high school for awhile was Earth Space Science and I loved teaching about fossils and geology. Some day soon, I plan to visit the Jurassic Coast in Cornwall.

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  5. this series should take a lot of exploration. LeeAnna

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  6. I like your approach and look forward to seeing how the series progresses.

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    1. I'm looking forward to it. I have several ideas and images in mind already.

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