Tien Chiu

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Previous post: Feel the fear. Do it anyway.
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May 13, 2016 by Tien Chiu

Next weaving project

On a much more lighthearted note…I’ve started planning my next weaving project. This will be another look at bipolar disorder, but a more humorous one. It’s based on this sketchbook entry from March:

I'm fine. How are you?
“I’m fine. How are you?”

The working title is “I’m Fine. How are you?”, and of course it’s all about trying to look normal when you’re really falling apart inside. On the other hand, the way it’s sketched and the title have a good deal of humor in them (we’ve all had days like that), so it’s not nearly as dark as “Bipolar Prison”.

It does, however, pose quite a few design challenges, not least of which is that I want to make the face three-dimensional. My plan is to weave two layers – one red/blue and one skin-colored – and cut away part of the skin-colored layer to reveal the colored chaos underneath. I’d really like to glue the “skin” over a papier mache mask, then cut away parts of the mask – that would give me parts of a three-dimensional face, which I think would be really cool (and fun to explore).

Just to make things more complicated, I’d also like to have some crinkling in the colored layer beneath the face, but not elsewhere. This means doing some complex and fairly technical stuff to get just one section to collapse – which I think is going to be interesting. (And require lots of samples.) It will be a fun technical as well as artistic exploration. And it will be good to see what Amazing Grace can do, when sufficiently challenged. She’s one heck of a loom. 🙂

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Filed Under: All blog posts, textiles, weaving Tagged With: I'm fine

Previous post: Feel the fear. Do it anyway.
Next post: More bipolar art, book business cards

Comments

  1. Deanna Baugh says

    May 13, 2016 at 4:45 pm

    I’m amazed at the work you do and I love that you can face the problems in your life as a starting point for the art that you do.

  2. Lin Bentley Keeling says

    May 17, 2016 at 4:23 pm

    Amazing work and creativity! It’s great to see someone else who asks, ‘what can I try next?”–though my work is all abstract. I really love your sense of imagery.

    I have followed your work in Handwoven and now, your blog. Keep flying!!!

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