Kristin Becker's DTC Classes at WSU

Quilt by Annie Mae Young c. 1985

The pattern in “Postage Stamp” Medallion by Annie Mae Young is a seemingly random spiral like the rotation of square pieces of fabric. There are many different colors, and patterns within this piece, it seems as though it may by old fabrics that weren’t being used anymore and the artist just cut them down and spread them out to make a more abstract design. I was also thinking that the squares might actually be easier to sew at small intervolves than larger strips or pieces.

I think that it looks the way that it does because the artist utilized her freedom of creativity, the white squares interacting with the darker pieces creates a ribbed look to the outside of the quilt which infers to the name of a postage stamp. The use of reds in the central square may be bringing attention to the American flags reds but that is more of a personal inference. I definitely think that a stamp was the original source of inspiration to grate the piece, also the siding on the right of a different fabric may have been to make the size wider.

Quilt

The patterns used in this quilt consist of various textiles, shapes and colors to create a much larger shape. We can see that the back ground consists of the same red textile fabric to create a stripe. The patter is not the same and varies in size and space. The quilt looks the way it does, because they created smaller hexagons to create a much larger one. The sources of inspiration may have been shapes. I think the artist made the quilt based off of inspiration, color and pattern. The artist used similar shapes to create one large shape.

Quilt by Nellie Abram

The quilt I decided to analyze was the “Housetop” variation in the Sear’s Corduroy collection. I would describe this pattern as a form of a grid. There is a type of organized grip about the pattern, but at the same time it is not organized. You can clearly see that there are six different rectangle spots on the quilt, but not all of the rectangle spots are filled in. Some spots are outlined only and other spots are just a rectangle and no outline. I think the imagery used in this quilt could either be visual or touch. There are different layers on the quilt, which could be easily felt. But, there are also different patterns that could be easily seen. The quilt looks this way because of the techniques Nellie Abrams used to create it. She would use left over pieces of fabric from the Sears workshop to create quilts. She put color blocks against color blocks to create negative space and powerful positive. She only used three colors on this quilt, which caused a lot of contrast in it. After looking at all of the quilts made from extra Sears’s corduroy, I think the inspiration for all of them was creativity. The Freedom Quilting Bee had to follow a strict outline of what the pillowcases should look like for Sears. I think at the end of the day when all of the workers got the extra scraps they could finally do what they wanted and run free with their designs. Each quilt is so different, which shows everyone’s own design style. Nellie Abrams made this quilt to express her creativity.

“Pig In A pen” Medallion, by Minnie Sue Coleman

I chose the quilt titled “Pig In A Pen” for its abstract yet organized pattern. The first thing I noticed about this quilt was the wide variety of colors that were used, all of which harmonize well to create a warm color scheme, despite the touches of green and blue used in the quilt. Another aspect of the quilt that stood out to me was how the quilt almost looks three dimensional, with the dark colors in the center adding depth to the rotational pattern.

In my own personal opinion, I think this quilt was crafted to show something that is blocked in or trapped to some extent. For example, the same colors that are used on the majority of the quilt are used within the dark green fabrics, making the green fabrics feel similar to a cage or “pen”. This cage is small in comparison to the rest of the quilt, showing that there is not much room for the “pig” to run around and be free, and the rest of the quilt represents all the freedom that is on the outside of the pen.

I think the artist made it to show that maybe she or a loved one was feeling trapped in some way or another, not necessarily physical, but in more of a mental state.

The quilt that I chose to analyze was one made by Nettie Young in 1971. It is currently at the Philadelphia Museum of Art the pattern being used is called Milky Way. I would describe the pattern as super abstract. There isn’t much of a pattern that the quit is following other than the material forming an H. When looking at the quilt I see more of a color scheme using blacks, grey, and reds. Another thing I did notice is the use of circles and squares. Inside almost all of the squares there are circles and some other shapes. It’s really unique. A woman named Sara Stein actually created the squares and circles pattern with Stanley Selengut and decided to call that specific pattern the Milky Way. They used a combination of abstract art and different variations of styles to come up with the pattern. Young decided to combine making the H and using the Milky Way style together to create her quilt.

A source of inspiration was definitely Sara Stein since Young used her Milky Way pattern, another may be someone whose name starts with an H and who enjoyed the colors red and grey as that is what the majority of the quilt is. The way she made it so abstract is really interesting because you would expect everything to go together and flow but instead she decided to use different colors in random spots which I find interesting because it looks so different.

I see pattern as a representation of repetition and duplication.  It can be seen to the eye as recognizable, and it is seen in many aspects of everyday life, from geography to clothing.

The Washington State University tartan is a great representation of pattern in a very obvious way.  It has basic cross patterns with the lines that move through the surface.  The colors of each line that intersect create the even square patterns throughout.

This image displays multiple observations of pattern.  The duplication of the benches create repetition where a pattern emerges.  Even though it is not perfect spacing, you can see the idea of them lines up creates a compositional pattern in the physical space.  Brick is also a basic and well known form of pattern because of its repetition and spacing.  The rows that alternate are one of the most well known patterns to the eye and it is very easy to see it.

We see patterns in fashion all the time.  This image I took of a model represents a chaotic pattern in the flower button up he is wearing.  Even though there is not immediate pattern seen like on the tartan, the repetition of the flower shapes and colors make a pattern.  The snake patch on his Gucci jeans represents a pattern as well, since it is seen in many other Gucci products.  It is repeated in the brand, and is one of their recent trademarks.

All the images used for this collage, are found off of the creative commons under google images. They are all free to use with no copyright needed. And the purpose of these images came from a different idea. At first, I wanted to create a dystopian world. I had animals in a field that had the ocean attached to it and I was going to have the animals run away from a tsunami that was going to happen. However, I came across an idea of a forest fire and that changed my whole idea.

There is a lot of shape used in my collage. I have shape of a forest towards the bottom of my collage with fire shapes going through the forest and a shape of smoke coming out of it. Also, there is a shape of the Earth and behind that are shapes of birds flying away. In my opinion, the direction of the collage moves vertically from bottom to top. The bottom has the most color and it attracts the viewers eyes more and the smoke rises bringing your eyes

to the Earth on the top and that leads to the birds in the corner of the collage. I believe I used size well in my collage and everything is well proportioned. The value in this collage is amazing because without the different opacity’s creating the collage, you wouldn’t be able to see the meaning behind it.

Burning World Created By: Issaya Saleumsay

I hope viewers will see the meaning behind it, the forest burning and the Earth burning at the same time isn’t a coincidence. I want people to realize that we need to treat the world better or we will have no place to call home.

I needed the moving and placement tool and the eraser tool the most, to have the pictures blend in together and be able to look like they were one picture and to show all the little things that needs to be looked at. But, I didn’t need any other tool and they weren’t used at all.

I believe that my collage does need to be done through digital media. You wouldn’t have been able to fade majority of the pictures out and place them the same way with the lights and fire.