Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Form, Not Function 4 -- realistic people

I was surprised at the number of representational works at FNF this year.  Of the representations, most were of people, and mostly faces.  Here are some of the more realistic treatments:

Linda Anderson, Remembering 

Linda was a prizewinner at last year's FNF, using the same technique of fabric painting plus intricate multicolor threadwork to make beautifully accurate portraits.















Deborah Hyde, Monkeys In My Hair (Evie), detail below

Deborah is another repeater, in both appearance and technique, having been in FNF in 2019, 2017 and 2016.  All of her quilts are pieced from tiny squares of fussy-cut print fabrics, about a half-inch apiece.  This year she's added little cartoony critters,  including monkeys, in and around the little girl's hair, emphasized with a bit of hand stitching.














Finally, my favorite of the realistic portraits is this tour-de-force of hand stitching.

Shin-hee Chin, The Evening Hour of a Hermit, details below

The painterly strokes of this stunning image are made from long strands of perle cotton, stitches that are interlaced in deep tangles of thread that only occasionally go through to the back layer of the quilt.
















Faces also came in other varieties than super-realistic; I'll show you some of them in another post.

5 comments:

  1. Mind blowing. I would find it hard to pick a favorite, but it would be a toss up between Monkeys in My Hair and The Evening Hours of a Hermit. Thank you for sharing all these fabulous quilts.

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  2. I echo Norma's comment--mind blowing. On the hermit, I think, "how does she get started?" These are amazing. Thanks, Kathy.

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  3. Thank you Kathy! Shannon mentioned your blog about FNF. I am honored!

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  4. As usual, I could not understand why the judges chose the pieces they did for awards, particularly the one for creative use of stitching which I felt hands down should have gone to Chin. Perhaps in person the one that did win it had something going for it that I couldn't see in the photo on-line but it's difficult for me to believe that it was more creative. In fact, it looked quite ordinary to me. How did Chin and also Hyde not get some kind of recognition over some of the ones that did which struck me as ho hum seen it before? Ok, rant over . . .

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  5. These are absolutely phenomenal!

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