Ever since I took Tansy Hargan’s “From Sketchbook to Wall” course I have wanted to use painted fabric on a larger scale than 10 inches square, with a lot more glue, and maybe even forget about thread. In essence I wanted to move from a three layer quilt to fabric collage. Restrictions on the amount of time I can spend actually sewing spurred me to combine a photo printed on fabric with leftover hunks of cut up clothing already painted with acrylic. The painted hunks, ripped and rough with some curled edges, are stuck on a foundation with matte medium. The result is quite stiff and grungy.
My starting point was a fabric printed photo taken by Penny and a dye experiment leftover from a theatrical costume.
I sewed the dye experiment to the photo and backed it with iron-on nonwoven interfacing. Then I started to position the hunks, adding bits of painted heavy non-fusible interfacing from my experiments pile.
More pinning bought me to this stage.
I think I’ll add a bit of sewing to make sure the pieces stay in place, though how much I add will be a function of how difficult it is to sew over the stiff surface. I may also add bits of paint.
I want to thank Julie Fei-Fan Balzar and her blog for introducing me to Margo Hoff. That post has tons of photos of Hoff’s work, so I recommend you check there for a visual feast. Hoff painted canvas fabric with vivid solid colors and then cut it up to make multi layer collages on canvas. Color, curves, transparency – her work has everything I want to do.
I’m linking to Off The Wall Friday.
The Snarky Quilter 
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It’s a very interesting piece! I agree that stitching will add to the texture and lines…but you’ll have to be as thoughtful about it as you were with the layout of the collage in the first place. Thread weight and colour…by hand or machine or both? Lots to ponder. Just enjoy the process! 🙂
Grime will probably hang out for a while on my wall as I have another work under the needle. My chief reason to add stitch would be to make sure all the bits are firmly attached, and to do it thoughtfully.
I really like the depth/multiple planes you have created in this piece. That is one of the things I try to create. Margo Hoff’s work is impressive. I always enjoy your links to other artist’s work. Thank you for sharing and all the work you put into this blog.
Thank you for appreciating this piece and my blogging efforts. I figure you can talk about art all you want, but seeing is believing so I try to let the work of others speak for me.
It is so nice to be able to read and see your process. Thanks for the link to Margo Hoff, I can see you have learned a lot from her/her work, it shows in your work. Pulling these pieces together and ending up with a good composition, a good balance of light and dark is what you have done and it’s very impressive and inspiring.
Thanks so much, Ann. I should recruit you to be my cheerer-upper when I’m in the artistic dumps.