Recently I visited a blog having a discussion about how printing on fabric is not creative.
Yikes I thought!
When things went digital, my work expanded ten-fold! I could do so many more things than I ever dreamed of. I married my interest in photography with my love of fiber.
I think working digitally IS a creative tool. Not only must you have an eye and take intriguing photographs. You need to know how to interpret this into fiber, then your vision can show. You can then leave the photo as is, manipulate it in a variety of ways ( much like you could do in the darkroom), layer them, fuse them with other photos, tile them, collage photo's, draw into to them using a digital pencil. And more. It is a vast field.
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| plain rice paper |
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| painted rice paper |
Not to mention deciding how to print them. What cloth or paper to use. Add a digital underpainting, or not. Print on painted or plain substrate. Print on a collage made from cloth, paper, or tea bags. Endless!
THEN when they are printed, you can go forward with creation. Stitching, adding mediums. collageing, layering with transparent media. Cutting apart and re-sewing- any number of options.
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| Ink Jet Printed Fabric Collage from my Dig it ALL, Digging into Digital Printing Workshop Photo Shop tools are digital paint brushes! It is a very creative technique- much as any surface design technique is! You can take it and run with it! "It's how the artist uses the media to interpret the subject matter that makes it art - not the media used to get there." Jayne Gaskins |
11 comments:
As a former painter, I remember thinking that maybe painting on fabric was frowned on by the quilting world. When I later realized that it was actually an asset, I had the same feeling that you did. Photography IS art. Who are all these SELF APPOINTED and INSECURE experts out there anyway?
Ditto Judy's last comment. Don't listen to anyone else, follow your own muse like you already do!
Oh my goodness! I think many people don't understand how *very* much can be done with digital tools. I hope that the more that folks explore it, the more they'll understand that the sky is the limit.
As someone else said, using digital photography in quilts is merely another tool, just as a sewing machine, pair of scissors, or a rotary cutter.
It is, however, WHAT you do with those tools. Like most of our work, some people are merely using them as photographs because they haven't learned to stretch and use them as you do, Wen.
People will learn. We will show them what can be done, that it isn't merely paint by numbers. Look at what Barbra McKie has done, and she's come a long way from the beginning.
Hey, we have a hard enough time with "quilt as art" without bickering over "photos in quilts are not art" as well.
AMEN!! You said it perfectly.
if we stopped using the innovations we'd still be taking daguerreotypes -- tools are tools, not an end in themselves. great entry!
I just LOVE it (please note sarcasm) when someone appoints themselves arbiter of all that is art. Who died and left him/her in charge?
As others have said, you have tools and materials. Those tools and materials in and of themselves are not art. It is what is done with them that makes art. And art is in the eye of the beholder.
teri
I have only begun to manipulate my photography in PS and paint with pixels to build mixed media works and I must say as a newbie I have gained greater appreciation for textile arts that combine digital work. Before learning PS I had the mis-understanding that the computer did all the work. So the best way to enlighten others is by illuminating the process involved. Hugs!
Thank you- This is so true, thus my post, to help people understand it is not some droid you assigned to do the work. I guess you only see what you know.
I agree with you all! I'm a newbie & used to be a purist but only because I didn't know what could be done. I'm delighted there's so much to learn & love the combination of applications, thanks to all of you I'll learn more ;)such wonderful inspiration & sharing out here.
if a pencil and paper is used to write the alphabet in a copying format once is it a creative piece? Maybe Not
if canvas is painted with one coat of gesso and a layer of color with a brush; is it a creative piece? Maybe Not
put those tools in the hands of an artist and you get Art.
the tools aren't creative.
the artist is creative.
I think it is the same with printing on fabric as Wen has demonstrated so many times.
:) Diana
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