Moon Orbit

Artist Statement

The moon evokes a sense of mystery as it regularly circles the earth. I love seeing how the craters and ravines appear to change as the luminous moon orbits and wanted to design and create a quilt depicting the ethereal beauty of the moon as it moves across the heavens. I am interested in transformation – changing fabric and paper by dyeing, discharging color, painting and embellishing, cutting apart and putting fragments together in different ways.

One of the challenges was to show an orbit in a vertical format. I choose to show this by designing and creating my own fabrics and surfaces. I marbled patterns on several types of silk and cotton using acrylic paint and sumi ink using alternative and suminagashi techniques. To depict the orbit, moons were sewn on a background which I designed using hand-dyed then painted and commercial cotton fabric. Some of the marbled patterns were then enhanced with graphite, ink and paint. The moons were stitched with varicolored rayon, cotton and synthetic threads. It has been a delight celebrating man’s first walk on the moon by creating a quilt reflecting its wonder.

Materials

Silk and cotton fabric, MX fiber reactive dye, fabric paint, sumi ink, acrylic ink, graphite, rayon, cotton and polyester thread.