Design In Motion: wrapping up the class

A summary of the 2+ months of this live online class with student eye candy!

I just had the privilege of working with a wonderful group of online students from all over the world. Some of them I knew quite well, and some of them were brand new to me. I'd like to share some of what they created using my Improv with Invisible Applique technique. They surprised me, and they surprised themselves! That's the fun and wonder of improv.

So let's get into it!

We all started with the student's chosen set of colors and values and started making small units. I will show you Cecilia's progress here. She started with a few of these:

And then, she started making connections between units:

And over the weeks, she added more units and connections.

And it grew and grew with its wonderful Mardi Gras energy. It began to take on a life and personality that you just couldn't predict.

As time went on, with class input, Cecilia pruned, edited, and added to her piece, until this...

It even exploded from its original size because all that color and energy just couldn't be contained! Cecilia told us that this way of working gave her a lot of freedom to change her mind, make mistakes and change them. I'm so thrilled for her, because this is a wondrous achievement.

Here are some more beginnings and WIP. They are in no particular order.

Jayni:

a small sample

and her inspiration photo:

and finally this beauty emerged:

Wow! Gorgeous, right? This from a lady who was uncomfortable doing improv.

And now Ann's work:

The last 3 photos were different choices she was trying out. It was fun to see all the different possibilities with just a few units.

And now for Jan's, who definitely was not in her comfort zone, but persisted to make a powerful piece:

Starting here:

and here:

and trying out different connections.

Until she finally arrived here with a strong statement about the mess that was happening in Mpls. Streets of Minneapolis

Next up we have the work of Ingrid:

I was continually struck by how each artist's way of working and their style came through using this method. Ingrid's sunny personality is evident here.

And now JoAnne's sample and her beginning:

Here's some beautiful work of Arielle. I can see the motifs in her sample and how they emerge in her birdlike piece. We tried her piece both horizontally and vertically- a fun thing to try with your phone.

Joyce's work also has a lot of energy and I love the movement:

It's always a good idea to remove the color to check you value placements with your phone.

Some of the students were quite prolific. Lyla was just such a one:

This colorway reminds me of a parrot!

Trying out different backgrounds:

Better on a darker background to show off those lovely ribbons. I can't wait to see this one quilted!

These 2 from Pm show great promise!

And Jane has a great beginning here:

I like this little sample from Marcia:

And she then started something with an older color story. Old piece is on the right:

Tracy began her explorations here:

I love the use of the white.

Manon also had not done this kind of work before and she stepped out of her comfort zone:

I coached her to add one really dark value to give her palette more depth.

It has so much movement and that crimson fabric really helps the overall depth. Value is so important in work like this, or any work for that matter!

I hope you enjoyed this recap of the class. They were all so helpful as I wrestled with a new course platform, and worked on the cohesion of the course material also. Students, I hope you all continue to explore this type of improv. It only gets more fun because you never know what you will get!

My piece is called "Unwinding" and it is in the final stages of being quilted. I began this piece before the class started, and am completing it now.

Let me know what you thought of this student showcase.

I plan to release this class again later this year, with live sessions (not sure when yet), so let me know if you are curious or want to here more about this course Design in Motion: Improv with Invisible Applique. It will have many improvements from its first iteration thanks to the input from my beta group of students. I couldn't have done it without you, thank you!!

Going forward into Spring, I hope you have a creative and busy time. Ciao for now!

Categories: : monthly blog post