Abstract Fiber: line / pattern / structure / disorder
August 19, 2008
In this post I will give you a broad overview of how my work has evolved. I begin with what my work is about and then show you examples of representative pieces.
I make large-scale tufted wool wall pieces and, on a more intimate scale, pieced organdy constructions sewn onto acrylic. My approach is intuitive and spontaneous producing compositions with the gestural line of drawings and the measure and control of geometry. Yet the pieces remain true to the special qualities of the materials.
In my work, I offer a structure that is formal and spare, stressing silhouette, shape, surface, and line. I translate felt tensions into visual tensions. I feel a strong drive for order and yet I immediately rebel against it, embracing disorder-which one can also call spontaneity, lyricism, freedom. Lines begin and disappear; patterns swirl and dissolve; an ordered structure is often subverted by the movement of the fluid background. I see these tensions as a reflection of a central conflict in real life. What life feels like is the narrative my work relates in abstract compositions. Neither order nor chaos wins; the fun lies in the completely natural encounter between the two.
I completed this piece right out of graduate school. (It is now in the collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.)
Chromatic Fugue ©1986
My approach then was more painterly than what I do now. Current work is more linear and monochromatic as in Blue Matter, a recent commission (Wachovia Bank headquarters, Charlotte, NC):
Blue Matter ©2008
In the monochromatic tufted pieces, you still do get zapped with an area of intense color which holds its own against the swirl of hatched patterning. And not just any color…but yellow! which I recall being told had to be used sparingly. It’s interesting that in the order/ disorder struggle, in these pieces fluid, energetic lines are actually stripes of alternating white and deep blue. You can’t get more orderly and controlled than by the repetition of parallel lines which become patterned channels of energy.
I’d never thought in terms of having a painterly or linear approach. I picked up on this difference among artists from reading some time ago that Picasso had a gift for line. Since then I’ve taken notice that other artists lean more in one direction than in the other (duh!). I love line. My emphasis on line comes at the expense of color for I pared it way down to monochromatic, especially in my stitched organdy constructions. Perhaps this leap from tufting on a large scale to piecing relatively small pieces came about as color dropped away and line ascended. Line plays a different role in the pieced work. It’s more architectural, as artspeak would put it.
Since 2003, I’ve needed a more portable process for making art for our lives now involved more travel which meant being away from my studio (though I continue to make large tufted pieces). I began working on a more intimate scale piecing white cotton organdy and sewing it onto black plexiglass . My love of line comes through in the stitched and folded seams which become structural, like scaffolding. The contrasting translucency of the adjacent shapes reveals the lines. The layering of shapes provides more opacity and more rhythmic contrasts. This work has evolved from an initial series of buttons + machine top-stitched organdy compositions, to pieced and layered formal constructs, to the more recent exploding silhouettes. Their intimate size and monochromatic palette of whites makes for quiet, meditative works–like whispers.
Construction #13 ©2003
In my next post, I will write about how I, a late bloomer, got started making art.
Introducing my work…
August 1, 2008
Welcome to my site.
I am an artist working in fiber in studios in New Mexico and Indiana. I am using this venue to bring my artwork to a wider audience. I’ve considered having a website, but ultimately wanted something less “official” and careerist; more informal and personal. Some channel in which I could control the presentation of my work. Some tool that I could manage myself. Some device through which I could connect with other artists or with whoever is interested in what I do.
I happened on this venue by chance…it was a eureka! occasion for I realized that it fits my needs. In addition to being able to link viewers to images of my work through the Flickr link, I can occasionally submit entries that reflect on my ongoing activities that relate to my artwork. Also, I can share my thoughts on various aspects of art-making…somewhat like journal entries, though I do not keep a journal. I do, however, scribble notes to myself in a notebook (notebooks!) commenting on an article I’m reading, say, or on some insight an author or someone made that even remotely relates to my artwork. Like keen, intelligent observations made by Joan Acocella regarding some ballet dancer’s footwork, say. Or, Arthur Danto, in writing about Martin Puryear’s recent show at MOMA, providing insights on his work that resonate with me. I want to revisit these scattered jottings and reflections for in the past they affirmed or redirected or gave justification (!) to what I was making at the time.
I also want to “think aloud” about my current efforts and how my art is evolving. And look back and reconsider older work of mine, perhaps in a new light. There’s a coherence to what I make…within each piece (they’ve been described as “worlds onto themselves”) as well as to the trajectory of the whole body of my work. One can follow threads over the years that lead to where it is now…or where I am now. I’d like to write about the shifts and changes in my work. Reflect on paths not taken. Paths taken. Most often, I’m not conscious or aware of what I’m actually doing for I let the art-making process lead me. I want to explore my choices (aesthetic as well as problem solving decisions) for I find that becoming aware of what decisions I’ve made has in the past nudged the work in unexpected and wonderful directions.
I know how some other artists work and think about their work. Often I’m surprised that I don’t work that way or think about it their way. My submissions might spark a recognition in others of shared concerns. I am a private person by disposition living in rural areas of the southwest and midwest. I am not adept at networking and making and sustaining connections with other artists. Perhaps I am too focused and driven to make time for these relationships. Talking about my work in public can be difficult for me. But writing about it…just putting my images and thoughts “out there” to be a part of a larger conversation without having to be there in person…that appeals to me. I think I have thoughts to share that others might want to hear–or not. Hence this venue, these notes…and future notes. Stay tuned.
Martha Donovan Opdahl 