Vive La Différence – Picasso

Happy monday. It’s a big week today for all london design festival exhibitors and attendees. I’m already feeling overwhelmed, but still excited! I look forward to connecting with some of you lovely bloggers and maybe meeting some new ones?

It’s Vive la Différence Monday!

My guest this month is Alison, author of Alison Sye. Alison is an artist, who scavenges the skips of London looking for abandoned treasures to resuscitate. I first came across Alison when I saw and immediately bought one of her gorgeous upcyled greeting cards and now own quite a large collection:-). Alison makes unique stitched greetings cards and art pieces, using food packaging, old books and fabrics. Each item is a one-off piece, and is individually numbered.

For new readers:

The concept: each month I will invite one blogger. They will create and showcase one image/vignette. There are 20 themes and 20 objects for my guest to choose from. They choose 1 theme and up to 3 objects. I will then create an image/vignette based on their choice. Everyone has free reign on how to create the image. It can be simple photography, a drawing, a collage, a hand-painted image, a styled table top… the choice is yours! The fun part is that you, my readers, will see 2 versions inspired by the same subject matter. There is no right or wrong. There’s just ‘different’.

Alison chose the theme: Picasso with the objects: clothes and fabrics – Here’s her take on this.

When Tina asked me to do this I was a tad apprehensive, but as it turns out I enjoyed the project immensely.

It was always in my mind to recreate one of Picasso’s paintings using unwearable old clothes, and after much deliberation I finally settled on The Meal (1953). It reminds me of feeding my two children when they were younger, and, unfortunately I do rather resemble the mother in the picture. Most of the sewing has been done by hand (my favourite), on the train to and from work, and on a trip to Paignton. I also had one afternoon of utter indulgence, when I sewed and watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s on television. I was sad when I had finished, a bit like when you finish reading a good book.

The clothes I used are: my husband’s boxer shorts (orange), my daughter’s skirt (blue), my work uniform (red), Jade’s dress (yellow), Del’s shirts (purple and green). You don’t know any of these people, of course, and the stories which come with each item of clothing are too long to tell. Last but by no means least, during the eighties, my friend Corrinne and I pranced around in very oversized shirts, hers is cream silk and I used it for the main part of this piece, mine was a black one with white spots (hair and table).

___________________________________________________________________________________

When I invited Alison to be a guest on Vive la Différence, I knew there would be stitching involved. I also knew I had someone who’s very accomplished at it. My first reaction was to just go with the flow and see where it takes me. Picasso is a big hero for me so I had to do it some justice.

I chose Woman in a Hat (1962) because I’ve always loved the portraits of his wives and daughters. I also knew that additionally to using clothes and fabrics I wanted to use mixed media to give it a slight Tina madness effect, which is very much how I see a lot of Picasso’s paintings.

I used: my stash of worn and rejected clothing, coloured staples, metallic threads as well as Madeira threads, coloured foil, black permanent marker, Stabilo Woody wax pencils which work really well on the Calico and give it that bright hue and Stabilo coloured felt tips 68.  I also enhanced some of the colours a little in Photoshop. There you have it. My woman looks more like Cleopatra but that ain’t a bad thing?! I think I might box frame this one and keep it on my desk to cheer me up over the dark winter days.

Thank you Alison for taking the time to inspire us with your Art. I’ve really enjoyed having you here on Colourliving. Hope to see you soon.

It’s currently bright and sunny in London. Long may it last. See some of you this week. Will see you back here on Thursday with some LDF13 coverage.