10/31/2010

Mimicry...

19


An odd word, mimicry.  Doesn't roll off the tongue very well.  And what I'm doing with it here, in stitches, isn't rolling off the needle very well.  Frustrating but I keep going.

Thought I'd see what would happen if I tried to imitate the "feeling" of fabric pattern with embroidery thread. Maybe that's an echo and not a mimic?


Works a little better in some areas than others...


Helpful to pull back, see it in a photo...some of these stitches need to be carried clear across a few bands of fabric rather than be kept contained in little areas.  I'll send some off to wander wildly like their patterned cousins.


Really not sure what is going on with this one.  Went a bit *swooney* when I saw this post over on India's blog.  I thought she was posting some very fine examples of Australian textile art but as I read on, nooo, they were contemporary indigenous paintings. wow. 

Could that feeling, that pattern play, be translated into stitches I wondered.  Someone can probably do it but I'm not sure it's me.  Can't get this anywhere near where I'd like it to be quite yet ~ may even start over.  May stop.  Still, the process has been worth all the effort so far.  I've had quite a few conversations in my head with whoever this artist is...I want to know WHY they made those marks the way they did.  Maybe then I could better understand why they speak to me so loudly and why I feel the need to stitch them.  Maybe then I COULD stitch them.

Mimicry...defined as "the act or art of copying or imitating closely."

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, my friends ~ now go mimic some ghosts & goblins!

The Old Hall, Fairies by Moonlight; Spectres & Shades, Brownies and Banshees
~ John Anster Fitzergerald, c. 1875 ~

19 comments:

  1. Perhaps instead of trying to mimic the patterns, the patterns can be a starting point for something new... let your intuition show you the way.

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  2. novembergrass ~ thanks for stopping by! and yes, your suggestion may be the way of it yet...starting point vs. mimicry.

    deanna ~ always such nice words from you, I appreciate that so much. And you should see my stack of purple "recycleds" - the color has a definite hold on me at the moment. Funny how we cycle through colors, isn't it?

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  3. I agree with both comments above :-)
    taking the patterns as inspiration and making something new out of them will create something dynamic and fresh and those purples are simply divine!!! :-)

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  4. Don't stop! or think about it too much...just keep going...you're paying homage and it's beautiful just as it's unfolding...thank you for doing this.

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  5. i went over to india's and had a look at what you were talking about, it is indeed beautiful but it's Aus indigenous art, and as such it is story telling and the stories are very ancient, before Time. and they're not whitefella stories, so mostly we don't understand them, we just try to appreciate them. If they resonate with you then that's something very special, but ... i'll finish this privately. k.

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  6. I like your thought that the patterns are echoes rather than mimicry. Reverberations, perhaps. Whatever you call them, I think it works.

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  7. mimicri as in camouflage (hope right english)
    what Kaite writes was in my mind directly.
    But I thought the thoughts in your head were whispers from your soul, each stich a thought.
    Like ancient thoughts and ancient storytelling from the aboriginals but differerent (not clear I think)

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  8. At times, inspiration comes from what we see before us and it moves us to want to go deeper, to see what comes to the surface from the connection that we have felt; I think that instead of mimicry it is a recognition and in that recognition, a need to honor what has been felt in whatever form that takes...

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  9. Triz ~ had such a lovely visit over on your blog...your beading artistry remains one of the highest points of inspiration for me. I take your words to heart.

    Suzanna ~ hello c2c mate! yes, I think for now I must keep going.

    Kaite ~ can't wait to hear more, thank you. Something about that painting I'm definitely trying to understand. If I flip the situation in my mind - if an aborigine was inspired by, let's say, a Jackson Pollock painting, I wonder how they would translate/mimic/echo that with their own marks?

    K ~ visual echoes! ok, this is making more sense. "Reverberations." A good word. Since you have recently translated your Sketchbook Project into fabric & stitches, I'm wondering where you might have found impasses? Did you struggle with your own echoing at all?

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  10. yvette ~ agreed, Kaite has brought up a very important point. Still, you understand my meaning very well.

    Marti ~ you have just made me remember something about things coming to the surface... Back in my art school days, I used to feel these strong connections to the subject matter in front of me. My resulting drawings were sometimes disturbing (not necessarily in a negative way.) A professor I had at the time - after divulging to him my angst over what was happening - encouraged me to go with it, fall into whatever was driving me. Which I did. I don't know why I needed someone to give me *permission* but I am still grateful for it. I broke through something. Thank you, Marti, for helping me to think of this again.

    ger ~ cannot wait until later today when that needle and I are going to make some jolly new paths!

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  11. i just love this experiment of yours christi. and i'm so glad to have found your beautiful blog.

    when i read this, and the comments, i was thinking too about mimesis from my school days... it has a lot of meanings but i remember a description of a culture (or a person) developing/defining itself through a process of mimicry and then distancing... in art, in anything. look forward to seeing more and hearing what you are thinking..
    xo
    dru

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  12. Hey Christi,
    I love it! Fabulous colors in the first piece! I especially like the last image. I love aborginal/tribal art, this is a great experiment and I think it definately worked out!
    Hugs
    Catherine

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  13. dru ~ thank you for visiting, for following, and for leaving this important comment :>} Your phrase, "mimicry and then distancing...in art, in anything," is spot on I think. If mimicking never gets any distance, or time away, then doesn't it become only copying after awhile? Distance ANd time away, a simple recipe.

    Catherine ~ thank you, my friend. Still don't know where the black & white one is going, have put it away for awhile - it confuses me. Been busy with the purples tho.

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  14. have read this post (and others too!) about the stitching%thoughts with many interests. Hope to find the right spirit once and start my own 'mimicri'piece

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  15. Well full marks for trying Christy. Its so good to just have a go sometimes. Its what its all about.

    xt

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  16. this is a little late about this
    piece, but i have sometimes found
    that it is at the point when i
    feel like it's not working...if
    i continue, just stitch by stitch,
    suddenly, it begins to MOVE in its
    own rhythm. ??
    Happy One Year Anniversary!

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