The Faces theme is the first challenge for me in this group. During our holiday I had a lot of time to think about it. First I created a mind map with all the words that came to mind. 

I collected pictures and portraits of artists. Kandinski and Rembrandt painted beautiful portraits. What were they trying to tell us with their work? The environment painted a time frame.

But how is that today? 

Nowadays, so many selfies are taken, sometimes too many!

That’s a time recording, too. 

But what happens behind the face? What’s going on behind it? Your thoughts are private. Let people around you influence you. Or are you just going to be yourself? The older you get, the more your memory becomes your history.

This is what I wanted to express. But how do you do that?

I painted a nice piece of fabric with a lot of color. With “discharge” I discolored a pattern. The face had to be in a contrasting color, so I chose a soft pink. For the background I found the color black appropriate. So I made a nice composition.

With the longarm machine, I quilted straight lines in the background. For the symbolic thoughts, I have chosen a squiggly form. With paint sticks I give color to them. I used quite a lot of the black fabric, so that the composition makes the face stand out. 

Size: 40 x 47 inches

Material: cotton, self dyed, commercial cotton 

Technique: hand dyed, discharge, longarm machine quilted