At any given time, the Fibre Art Network has several exhibitions traveling to various venues, and one or more in the planning stages. At the end of 2016, a new exhibit titled ‘Conversations‘ was announced.
‘Conversations’ will be an exhibition based on a conversation between two artists working together. The concept is that the two partners will engage in a conversation about their works. Each pair of artists must agree on their subject matter (the two pieces must relate or respond to each other as a unit) and on the size and orientation of the two pieces (they must both be the same).
I immediately contacted my fibre artist sister, Anne de Verteuil. We’ve worked on collaborative projects in the past; we enjoy collaborating and we work well together. We were partners for another Fibre Art Network exhibition ‘Abstracted‘ and on a piece we called ‘FIRE: an Element’. We have a work in progress titled ‘WATER: an Element’, but for a variety of reasons it has yet to be completed.
Anne agreed to partner with me for ‘Conversations‘, and we started thinking about what our topic should be. We had lots of time to decide, as the entry deadline wasn’t until early 2018.
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Then in January 2017, our Dad passed away. As we were cleaning out his belongings, it occurred to us that Dad should be the subject of our ‘Conversations‘ pieces. We would each make a fibre portrait of Dad commemorating his life. Anne would create “Young Jack” and I would create “Older Jack”.
“Young Jack” is based on a professional photo taken in the 1940’s just before Dad left Trinidad to come to Canada. A fairly recent photo provided the inspiration for “Older Jack”. Anne flipped the photo of Young Jack, so that the two finished portraits would be facing each other when hung together.
We used image editing software to create a guide for the fused fabric collage technique we used to make the portraits. Here are few of the many versions we created.
We felt it would be meaningful to construct our pieces from Dad’s clothing – ties and shirts, as well as his favorite sweater vest, which we both had mended several times.
Over the next 10 months, we collaborated in person, by phone, texting and email. We discussed various techniques. We talked about colour values, colour symbolism and Dad’s lifelong struggle with depression and anxiety. We sent each other photos of our progress. Our design and construction ideas evolved as we shared ideas.
We reminisced about conversations we had with Dad. He loved debating – politics, philosophy, world events, and the activities of his children. He loved writing – private thoughts in his journals, personal affirmations and inspirational quotes on the back of business cards, long letters to his family members. We used some of his writings in our pieces – and we printed them all on pieces cut from his white shirts.
Dad’s writings were often philosophical and introspective, which inspired our title: “Jack: Conversations with Myself“.
Here are the two finished pieces. They will hang next to each other in the FAN ‘Conversations‘ exhibit, which will premiere May 31 at Quilt Canada 2018 at the Vancouver Convention Centre.
If you look closely, you can see that we used some of the same shirt and tie fabrics in both pieces.
For “Young Jack” Anne hand dyed some of the shirt fabric to get the colors and values she wanted for the face. In the background, she included a letter he sent to his parents in 1947 describing life in BC, and images of envelopes and stamps from that year. These are printed on shirt fabric.
For “Older Jack” I included Dad’s favorite, oft-mended sweater vest in the background. I printed some of the cards with his personal affirmations on shirt fabric and fused them to the sweater vest. I also included a poem referring to “jack-stars” that he had adapted and sent to me and my siblings a couple of years ago, and I hand-embroidered some “jack-stars”.
Working on these portraits of Dad was a very special way for us to process his passing and to celebrate his life. Dad was also a vocal fan of my blog. Whenever I published a post, he would call me to discuss the artistic merits of whatever I was working on. He didn’t hesitate to critique or praise my work, as he thought appropriate. I still think of him every time I publish a post.
Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.
WIP Wednesday @ The Needle & Thread Network
WIPs on Wednesday at Esther’s Quilt Blog
Let’s Bee Social! @ SewFreshQuilts
Midweek Makers @ QuiltFabrication
Thank you for sharing, I was flooded with memories of weekly letters I exchanged with my mother in England from 1959 until she died in 1992 and my sister who died shortly after I left. I treasure my letters.
Thank you for sharing who you are and what is important to you, as well as your talent and creative process.
What a great idea for honoring dad – they turned out fabulous!
Terry, those are fabulous! I look forward to seeing the exhibit in Vancouver
Wonderful pieces, Terry, and such a great tribute to your father.
A wonderful tutorial on how you built up the portraits and so interesting to read a little about him. Thanks for sharing both pieces of art are different but so interesting. Cheers Glenda
What a wonderful collaborative project for you both to work on. I do so admire these fabric portraits and love the personalisation of the pieces themselves.