Sur le cou-de-pied

I started by analyzing Balance, and several ideas sprang to life, but one settled. When I was younger, classical ballet was a great part of my life. And the most important part of ballet is balance. In every movement you have to find the balance of your body.
Next, I had to find how to express this, my first thought was to use an image of my old battered shoes hanging on the wall. But they did not express much balance. But this position, "Sur le cou-de-pied", pins the body to the ground when it is in balance.
I decided to go for stenciling this time, and made two stencils out of freezer-paper, one of the feet and one of the shoes. I used acrylic paint with textile medium. Then I added shadow with Paint-sticks, quilted the shoes and filled the background with ballet-terms. I finished it all with some hand-stitching to suggest the floor.

 And some close ups:

The "X" Factor

The theme "Leave Your Mark" presented me with a struggle, so I left this idea alone so that my subconscious could come up with a suitable response.   And... I recalled how a couple of artist friends had made past comments about my abstract work often included an X.   So my quilt is called the "X" Factor.

My art-quilt is made using hand-dyed cotton fabric, dyed silk for the X, and dyed threads for the embellishment.   The line work represents growth with its upward movement, and my choice of red is due to its dramatic and passionate essence.

The background was cotton cloth that I dyed with thickened Procion dyes.   I kept the design simplistic to feature the rhythm of life.  Choice of fabric for the binding compliments the rest of the piece.   

This piece was large a result of intuitive spontaneous choices rather than a planned organised approach.    This is the way I like to work and it reflects the way I now like to leave my marks in daily life.