Quilt Transformed into Community Art Project - "The Wishing Wall"

The quilt took a whole new turn on Friday morning, the day of "Whitsun", when the Holy Spirit comes to the Earth! After I heard the little voice in my head say, " you are creating "The Wishing Wall", I ran into my foyer and stripped the pieces from the wall. I found a basket to hold them, gathered up all of the pushpins I could find and quickly typed up the Score sheet seen above. At school, I pinned the "seed" origami piece with the Score sheet and the monoprint that resulted from my exploration of monoprinting called "Ripples 2" to the wall. During the critique in my Fiber Art Sculpture Class, one student exclaimed, "I don't know if I'm looking at the ground or the sky." In the Land of Metaphor, monoprints folded into simple origami forms do resemble a field of "flowers" or a sky full of "stars." Another student said that she could see this as a large public installation project. Now, I am folding monoprints like crazy for a Community Project at the Falkirk Center for the Arts during the Re: Valued show in June - August, 2011.

Thank you Cayan Robertson for showing me how to create the conditions that encourage people to participate in artmaking.

Elise

Origami quilt made with monoprints is growing!

As I pin my folded monoprints to the wall in my foyer, I notice that the quilt is taking on a new life of its own. I wonder where this "block" will fit, and how to make the edges meet on forms that were created out of different sizes of paper. I think about how Nature does it. How each piece needs a space, and how each piece fills a space. I originally wanted to use as few pushpins as possible because I didn't want to make holes in my wall, but I realize that this "rule" is too constraining for what the piece wants to do and can do. My installation piece can't be forced into a contrived configuration because I don't want to put holes in the wall. It needs to BREATHE. I think about the freedom that the "Magic Wall" at O'Hanlon Center for the Arts offers me. I wonder, I ponder... on how to proceed. Then, I realize that I only need to keep making monoprints and all of them will find their way onto my "Magic Wall"!

Stay tuned as the quilt folds and unfolds, breathes and takes on new meaning.

Elise

Origami "Scrap" Quilt Created with Monoprints

I am using my monoprint "rejects" to create a "scrap" quilt. In the making of my monoprints, I noticed that my brayer was going over the edge of my paper. To protect my work space, I placed a piece of paper under the paper I was working on. At the end of the day, I noticed a history of marks from the various inks I used throughout the session. I also found myself with a lot of unused ink on my pallet, and in my conservative nature, I sprayed the pallet with water, and "printed" more paper. With many monoprints accumulating quickly, I saw the opportunity to create a "scrap" quilt, with folded Origami "flowers". Now, I pin them to my wall in the foyer and enjoy the interplay of random color, line and form.