CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE
FIBER ELEMENTS
An abstract submitted in partial satisfaction of
the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in
Art
by
Virginia Wilson Ross
May 1985
The Abstract of Virginia Wilson Ross is approved:
Elin Waite
Bernice Colman, Chair
California State University, Northridge
ii
Acknowledgement
Special thanks go to my many professors, especially to the members of my committee, Bernice Colman,
Mary Anne Danin and Elin Waite for sharing their knowledge and expertise; to
my
friends in the Fibers program
for their loyal support and helpful advice; and to my
children for their love and encouragement over the years
-- most especially my daughter.
iii
ABSTRACT
ELEMENTS
by
Virginia Wilson Ross
Master of Arts in Art
Sonia Delaunay, early twentieth century artist
and colorist extroadinaire, once said "Color is the skin
1
of the world",
no doubt meaning that color is the essence of our environment.
I share that philosophy so it
is only logical that color should be a prominent force
in my own work.
Coupled with this is my lifelong asso-
ciation with fibers,
spanning every imagineable disci-
pline that can be associated with this basic element.
1
Arthur A. Cohen, ed., The New Art of Color:
The Writings of Robert and Sonia Delaunay; (New York:
The Viking Press, 1978), p. 271
1
2
My initial work after entering the Graduate
program,
Fibers
University,
of quilting.
and
and
Fabric,
here
at
California State
Northridge was in the time-honored artform
Using traditional repetitious silk squares
rectangles
combined with multitudinous
stitching,
several works were completed. All of these pieces were
primarily about color, and secondarily about structure.
I was comfortable with the organized gridlike compositions that I constructed from purchased brightly colored
silk.
However,
eventhough the bright hues and varying
tones structured in geometric alignments were different
from the traditional bedcover quilts my Grandmother
taught me to make
(in that sense,
they were unusually
original), they seemed to stop short of a personal aesthetic accomplishment. Consequently, an evolvement to my
present process began to take shape.
The next phase of my
transformation occurred
with the application of fiber-reactive dyes which I
added in order to obtain stronger imagery.
This imagery
was derived from my surrounding world, whether it was
the sky that stretches to deep space, a sparkling brook
descending a mountain or an "inner landscape" and was
quite secondary to the rhythmic movement of the carefully pieced colored remnants.
3
The process of adding dye to the many-pieced
works was a painful step but an important one.
It was
alien to me to apply any kind of ornamentation (other
than stitching) to my quilts. My psyche was disturbed at
the thought of altering the profusion of colors I had
painstakingly assembled.
I knew my Grandmother and her
Quaker quilting bee friends would be horrified. The initial timid results proved to me that this simple addition of more color would enhance the work, not destroy
it, and open an entirely new direction for my work.
So that two years later, my work is still about
color and still has the basic components of quiltmaking, comfortable grid-like structure, strong horizontal/
vertical/diagonal movement,
and the assembling of many
parts to construct a whole.
However, the past two years
has been filled with creative exploration utilizing a
variety of materials and processes. Now, there is layeron-layer of color applied not only with dye, but with
acrylic pigment and further embellishment by applique,
woven strips of cloth, surface threads, wrapped cords or
ropes, and with the elements not necessarily stitched.
Painting and layering reinforce the illusion of depth
and space.
The color is applied through a controlled
exhuberance which results, in many pieces, in a riot of
4
color.
Each individual element independently attracts
the viewer and demands closer examination.
Repetition is used as structure so that structure has become three dimensional and an integral component of the process.
Fibers, dye and paint interact,
with the darker more intense hues merging into lighter
ones.
By combining the speed of painting with the or-
derly grid philosophy of the quilt, I have been able to
expand my aesthetic vocabulary to new horizons which now
appear to be only beginning for me.
The imagery in my work slowly evolves through
numerous layers of varying media with dye always as the
first
layer because of the very nature of its initial
action on the natural fibers.
The primary imagery is
transformed with each color application so that,
times,
many
the completed plane bears little resemblance to
the original concept.
Each developing area becomes an
integral part of the whole.
This is not to say that dye is applied only as
the first step.
Often,
after paint is applied.
paint,
the
result
is
a
another layer of dye is added
When dye is applied to wet
water stained
illusionary look
quite different than when dye is applied to dry paint
where most of the dye sheds onto the surrounding fibers.
5
When dye is applied to wet fibers,
~here
is an instan-
taneous spreading of the color as the dye quickly travels along the woven threads.
iously dyed fibers,
When applied to dry prev-
it is relatively easy to maintain a
pre-planned image.
The dyes react strikingly different from acrylic paint.
When blue dye is applied over yellow dye,
whether the yellow is wet or dry, the result is green as
the two combine to make a third color.
With paint, when
one applies blue over yellow, the result is blue because
there is no mixing of color after the original layer has
dried.
Because of the diversity of fiber-reactive dyes
and the unrestricted process I use for the application
of the paint, the element of chance plays heavily in the
finished piece.
Each interrelating layer determines at
that particular instant the direction of the next layer.
The multiple layers are applied to the surface by many
diverse means and the result is sometimes unexpected as
the fibers and medium become one.
The element of chance
adds sponteneity, mystery, intrigue, and excitement and
it is easy to see why Helen Frankenthaler and Jackson
Pollock, both early twentieth century painters, and other artists that followed, have utilized this technique.
0 '
6
The specific tool which I
shape of the color stroke.
use determines
the
Where the pigment lands de-
pends on my accuracy and skill. For instance, if I gently
throw from a
teaspoon
(with the spoon bowl facing
up), the stroke on the plane is exactly the shape of an
elongated spoon, or, if you will, a polywog.
If I apply
the paint with the teaspoon bowl on its side, the stroke
is a gentle half-circle shape,
just like the shape of
the bowl. Therefore, there is "chance" and "control" simultaneously.
The dye is either sprayed from a bottle, dripped from an eye-dropper, or the fibers are totally immersed to obtain solid areas.
Because of the nature of
the two former methods of application,
mospheric quality
there is an at-
in many of my pieces.
The imagery
that comes from my surrounding world is enhanced by the
process I use.
The swirling molecules of the ionosphere
are depicted by thousands of tiny drops and thin staccato
lines,
quickly
applied with numerous
values
and
hues of complementary colors. Yet still another spontaneous color happening is the simultaneous optical blending of colors which greatly increases the spectrum of
hues.
Process,
materials and color are the unifying
elements in my work.
Fibers and fabric, will always be
7
present; they are part of both my heritage and the heritage of civilization.
to fibers;
the viewer.
There is a certain friendliness
they invite a unique tactile response from
Fibers can be soft or stiff,
curved, smooth or nubby,
flat.
For me,
straight or
layered or stuffed, twisted or
fibers can comfort or excite, pacify or
entice, mystify or intrique.
Color,
too, has extraor-
dinary qualities and can evoke images of fire, luminous
clouds, fields of wildflowers, swirling water, sheeting
rain or the turbulent gases of outer space.
Movement
and color together can appear in myriads of configurations so that all physical and emotional states can be
expressed.
My works can be views from the Space Shuttle
or very personal "inner landscapes".
Therefore,
the process of combining fiber and
color is an important aspect of my work. Painting, dyeing,
layering, piecing and stitching are all part of my
process
depth.
for
reinforcing
the
three-dimensionality
of
There is a sustained tension along with an illu-
sion of depth and movement.
I have expanded my vocab-
ulary in the quilt artform to incorporate more flexibility.
Not only is color in the fibers, it now embellish-
es the surface of the fibers,
sionality.
adding still more dimen-
8
My process is helping to expand the quilt tradition into an artform of the future.
I
am using the
traditional horizontal/vertical/diagonal grid to support
layerings of varied materials in order to emphasize the
"quilt-ness"
of
diverse
collaged
elements.
Borrowing
from the Impressionists' palette and the Expressionists'
abstraction,
I
am conversing with traditional elements
and achieving a sense of worked quilt surfaces without
the laborious stitching executed in formal quilts.
environments
are panoramas
of line,
My
texture and color
that pay homage to the history of the quilt but look to
the future for both vibrant energy of discovery and
unique synergism of fiber elements.
9
Plate 1
"PURPLE FIELDS"
44"
X
44"
Canvas, Cotton Velveteen, Fiber Reactive Dye, Acrylic Paint
Plate 2
Detail of Plate 1
11
Plate 3
"SUMMER RAIN"
44"
X
44"
Rice Paper, Cotton Cord, Fiber Reactive Dye, Acrylic Paint
Plate 4
Detail of Plate 3
13
Plate 5
"SPACE DRAGON"
44"
X
44"
Canvas, Silk Thread, Fiber Reactive Dye, Acrylic Paint
Plate 6
Detail of Plate 5
15
Plate 7
Untitled
44"
X
44"
Canvas
Plate 8
Detail of Plate 7
17
Plate 9
Triptych, Untitled
Left Panel and Middle Panel
(Right Panel is shown as Plate 10)
(Top of panel is towards spine of book)
132" x 44" (each panel is 44" x 44")
Canvas, Silk Thread, Fiber Reactive Dye, Acrylic Paint
..... :.' :·.···
19
Plate No. 10
Triptych, Untitled
Middle Panel and Right Panel
(Left Panel is shown as Plate 9)
(Top of panel is towards spine of book)
132" x 44" (each panel is 44" x 44")
Canvas, Silk Thread, Fiber Reactive Dye, Acrylic Paint
.
. ,·· ..
·..: ··...
..
:--:-'
. .... . ·.··
~:
•
'.
21
Plate 11
Detail of Plate No. 9
(Left and Middle Panel of Triptych)
-·~~------~----
23
Plate 12
Detail of Plate 10
(Right Panel of Triptych)
• •
·'
•
25
Plate 13
Untitled
42" X 60"
Canvas, Fiber Reactive Dye, Acrylic Paint
Plate 14
Detail of Plate 13