Back in July I had a magical experience at the Metchosin International Summer Scool of Arts (MISSA). I signed up for a 5 day class with Mary Pal (a cheesecloth wizard) at the Shawnigan Lake School campus. This private school is unofficially nicknamed “Hogwarts of the West”. The dining hall is truly magical.
I have admired Mary Pal’s work for several years and was excited to learn how she manipulated cheesecloth into stunning portraits! I had a fun time with a small group of fibre artists in the class and enjoyed the dining hall with a much bigger group of artists from all the other classes taking place over the week.
We started the week with a couple of class projects. The first is an old woman – very small – about 8 by 10 inches. While everyone in the class used the same reference photo, our pieces all looked quite different as we interpreted lights and shadows with our cheesecloth. The second piece is a landscape using coloured cheesecloth and my introduction to water soluable wax crayons.
The last 3 days of the class I worked on this Lion using one of my friend Robin’s photos as reference. The photo to the right has been changed to black and white and posterized. I am not a big fan of posterizing although it does emphasize the dark and light areas. I think this one has 5 or 6 levels of shading and I do like the effect in the photo image.
Working with cheesecloth was a challenge! When I got home, this piece sat as a work-in-progress on my design wall for several months. I eventually made a few modifications, moving away from the posterizing effect and finally finished it last month. It is nowhere near the masterful detail of Mary’s work and I would have to spend many hours practicing this technique to make it my own.
For now I am going to set this technique aside. I really enjoy using all the colours and a wide array of fabrics so I’m not sure it would become a favourite part of my practice.
The experience of 5 days of art away from home was also a first for me and very intense! It was a big change from the online learning that I’ve been doing since 2020. I like trying new things and will definitely continue to pursue both in-person and on-line learning experiences next year.
quiltiquity 