Engaging
a Paradox: Artist Statement 2012
Mary
Hambly
Delicate Paper, Machine Stitching, and
Traditional Quilting: A paradoxical idea when thinking of combining these
elements in a Paper Art Quilt. Yes?
A paradox can express the tension between
ideas that are contradictory, and yet both/all are true. Integrating a Paradox is not
blending these opposites into some neutral compromise, but joining them in a
way that each element retains its unique character - yet somehow working better
together than apart.
The Paper
Art Quilt is itself a paradoxical medium: papers cut and fractured in
pieces & stitched into a whole; contemporary art & traditional craft. .
.
• Art often expresses a conceptual paradox:
order & chaos, beauty & ugliness, love & hate, hope & grief,
pain & joy, insanity & sanity, turmoil & peace . . .
• Life is filled with contradictions: control & risk, community & solitude, independence & dependence, strength & weakness, integrity & falsehood, denial & reality, pain & joy, work & play, internal drive & external motivation…
• Design elements can embody paradox: dark
& light, pattern & variation, harmony & discord, hard & soft,
cool & warm, symmetry & asymmetry, flat & dimensional . . .
My work is a process of engaging the
paradox: stenciled, marbled, printed,
and over dyed papers are cut, pieced, and then stitched into blocks, using a zig
zag sewing machine. Blocks are then laid out in a composition, sometimes born
out of the repeating pattern concept of traditional quilting, sometimes not. The
“quilt” is then completed with a border, also of paper, and the result is a one
of a kind image. The rich and exotic
papers which form the foundation of each Paper
Art Quilt provide me the opportunity to forge complex and unique
combinations of color, texture and pattern.
You are invited to view my new work at the By Hand Gallery. Hope to see you on August 3 from 5:00 - 8:00 pm...or any time between August 2 - September 2, 2012.
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