Albert Einstein
And what a leap that is!
Here is a rug I hooked of circles:
New born hooker of one month
Look at me carefully following the rule of three and trying to be expressive in my colour strip patterns. I didn't dye then and it shows.
Several years later, about 10 you can see how much stronger a statement I can make with the same general idea. I've got my big girl pants almost on! I know how to make things glow, build colour play within my circles while not distracting from them. My background is a whole lot of happiness to look at. There is richness and depth and best of all there is still a lot of things for me to learn... rules of three? Leave them be.
You can see I was in love with the wormy look, I made this rug also in my first year of hooking.
I was getting a bit more sophisticated, you can see my attempts to provide light and shadow, my two part moon effect.
See how I loved Exclamation points even then!!!!
Hard to imagine how the very next cat I did 8 years later turned out like this...
And there are still so many more tricks for me to learn, I can't wait for them to appear.
The moral of this story:
You can know something, I knew the same principles of loop pulling then as I do know.
But what I understand now, that's the ticket.
I understand what to look at. I'm beginning to understand colour and how to control it. I understand how to make what's important stand out and what to let recede. I understand I want to have the illusion of physical depth in what I do. I understand how to do that. I understand it only by doing it. I do it by making mistakes and correcting them. I accumulate understanding by acting on knowledge, discarding what doesn't work and studying what people do in any medium that does work.
Several years later, about 10 you can see how much stronger a statement I can make with the same general idea. I've got my big girl pants almost on! I know how to make things glow, build colour play within my circles while not distracting from them. My background is a whole lot of happiness to look at. There is richness and depth and best of all there is still a lot of things for me to learn... rules of three? Leave them be.Here is a picture of a cat rug I hooked in my first year for my daughter Vanessa.
I had to turn the cat to face the other way because I couldn't "do" its face. I made a strange illusion where the cat seems to flip which way he faces, how disconcerting. I did get better at making the star insides look like the outsides...
You can see I was in love with the wormy look, I made this rug also in my first year of hooking.
I was getting a bit more sophisticated, you can see my attempts to provide light and shadow, my two part moon effect.
See how I loved Exclamation points even then!!!!
Hard to imagine how the very next cat I did 8 years later turned out like this...
And there are still so many more tricks for me to learn, I can't wait for them to appear.
The moral of this story:
You can know something, I knew the same principles of loop pulling then as I do know.
But what I understand now, that's the ticket.
I understand what to look at. I'm beginning to understand colour and how to control it. I understand how to make what's important stand out and what to let recede. I understand I want to have the illusion of physical depth in what I do. I understand how to do that. I understand it only by doing it. I do it by making mistakes and correcting them. I accumulate understanding by acting on knowledge, discarding what doesn't work and studying what people do in any medium that does work.
Study your rugs this week and see what leaps you've made from knowing to understanding, I think you'll be proud of yourself!
I'm just beginning to understand! I am going to try for more depth in my future rugs. I can see it in my minds eye, now why won't the universe give me more time to hook? Loved seeing your early rugs. They are wonderful! Cathy G
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post..... I am evolving as a rug hooker, but feel I lack discipline (does that make sense?). Sometimes I feel like I'm just all over the place. That is sort of a recent feeling. I think I need to plan better. I have a project coming up that will require lots of planning and attention to detail. We'll see what happens. Thanks for sharing your early work and the comparisons. Love it all!
ReplyDeleteWanda, thanks for the interesting post! It's amazing to see how you've grown as a hooker and artist. I'm still trying to find my own personal style. Like when someone sees my work I want them to be able to recognize it and say that's Sheri's work! Like we can always recognize Deanne Fitzpatrick's art. Maybe that will come~maybe not!
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