The End of the Line

 Lines VIII

fabric hand dyed by artist

12" x 12"

©2012 Lisa Flowers Ross

$95

This is the last completed artwork in the Lines series.  I thought it was done over a month and a half ago and it did show up at our opening reception for Textiles x Two.  But people couldn't see that there was a stitched circle up there in that empty space until they were looking closely at it.  Did you notice it before I told you about it?

It was bothering me.  So yesterday, I pulled it out of it's packaging (a topic for another post) and put some red hand stitching around the circle.  Now, you can see the circle from afar and I am happier with it.

The circle has now become a focal point, too.  It competes with the red line for attention, but I think that creates a nice tension and keeps the eye moving around.  It also makes those red lines under the gray shape look like a reflection.

And yes, you can see the stitching on the back.  I think because of the tradition in stitching, some people think that the back should look as good as the front.  I say that it doesn't matter how messy the back of a painting is, so it shouldn't matter how neat the back of my textile artwork is.

But I will show it to you anyway because, well . . ., it is neat and professional.  The solid sides are facings so there isn't any kind of extra border/binding on the front.  Since this is a small piece, I have sewed on two little plastic rings by which to hang it, instead of a sleeve.  Commercial prints I have  from past years and fabric not good enough for the front make it to the back.