A Critique: Boom, Bang! and News

boom, bang!
embroidery face on iron on transfer, acrylic, collage,cell phone, oil stick, oil paint on mdf board

My goal was to try and see if I could take my embroidery to another level and incorporate it into an assemblage. Reading about Rauschenberg has reminded and inspired me to get back to doing what I love, which is bringing various media into one piece. You can't see it here, but the face is on another piece of wood that projects out.

critique
here are som
e of the thoughts.
Carol: Tribal face, a call, melting into the rainbow portal
Ria: thought of Dante's Inferno, disliked the yellow and felt it
-->cold, loud and messy... at bottom right there is a "stamp-thing" which caught her eye and found it intriguing.
Bill: also got a tribal feel, maybe a fetish aspect with the phone..... I like the colors; for me they are working to "pop" the face and embroidery.....Surprise, anger perhaps shock on the face coupled with fragments of text mixed into the paint surface compliment the communication. Like Ria I"m intrigued by the stamp?metal? object in the corner
Karen: Trashing cell phones, I like this, undecided about the colours, yellow isn't working for me, it's an ugly yellow.
Sharon: I see anger and warning
Laura: I get "sickness" from these colors. The cellphone dangling from the mouth by a wire gives me the willies. One question is about the letters/words. I'm looking for meaning in them and not finding any. Intentional?
My daughter felt the face was shock and with the cell phone and parts of text maybe the person is behind the wheel of a car. Yellow could represent urine like when someone pees themself when in an accident.
Nancy: Orange draws eye to face, but feels it should be notched up a bit with a redder tone. Rawness with yellow helping to connect to trauma over cell phone. the face has a gender/racial neutrality. Person is plugged into communication. Tone down the right side where the yellow is with some white to isolate the face a bit more. Maybe add some text onto the phone.

Everybody got some sense of what it's about some way or another.
I didn't plan it all out but it evolved from my thoughts about texting while driving and what can happen. The keyhole at the bottom right is a portal, a doorway to another place.

I may tweak it by toning down the yellow on the right side with a bit white, and adding a bit orange/red glaze over the orange.

thanks to everyone who critiqued the painting

Meanwhile in the News -->
Brooke Bryan wrote a story in the Yellow Springs News Titled
AND
Dayton MostMetro online Magazine
I'm dead chuffed (geordie speak meaning really happy) that Dayton MostMetro has included my Yellow Springs Arts and Culture Blog link on their DMM Visual Arts page - yea!!!!!! And if you want to learn a little about the Village I live in check out the article Brian Ressler wrote.

Comments

My favorite quote from Antonio Porchia's Voices "I know what I have given you. I do not know what you have received." Plus Skeins Away is totally chuffable.
jafabrit said…
thanks Bill.
Margot Potter said…
I love the yellow. I think it's supposed to make you uncomfortable, it's vivid and intense, but the blue tones it down a little. I love the combination of colors and the composition. This has impact.

Great work.

xoxo
Madge
Lady P said…
i was impressed with the colors and the phone blended, melded into the work - reminds me of the barbies that i so admire in your knit ups - just with a communications device this time
and the article and photo of you is great - every good reason to be "chuffed"
Boom, Bang!
Wow + I'll side with Bill's quote. What else could I say? ;) Congrats with being in the news! :)
Lana Gramlich said…
Congrats on yet another media shout out!
Anonymous said…
I agree with Margot....I like the 'disturbing' yellow, especially after I had read where your inspiration for this piece came from. Car accidents and the contemplation of them are jarring, so it makes sense to me. Great piece, and very inspiring - I love to embroider, but I'm certainly not as original with it as you are! It's nice to have a goal!
Apple said…
Pretty tree decoration!! :) I bet the tree is happier now!
jafabrit said…
apple, thanks for dropping by and letting me know what you think :)

thanks anon, I am loving the embroidery and the potential.

Lana, I was thinking this was going to be a quiet year LOL! oh well, I ain't complaining.

Lady P I hadn't thought of that connection with the barbies and phone, but you are right. I do kind of like the camouflage aspect. I guess it was a subconscious thing, but always interesting how others are able to see what we don't.

thanks Ria, margot :)

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