CREATING BY SPEAKING WITH YOUR WORK

  "Orange Mint"  11" X 14"  Lori LaBerge  2018

We've been on the road the last couple of weeks, but I have been working. This piece uses repetition. Three curves (2 partial circles and the upper left) and multiple diagonal lines. There are two whites, blacks, greens and oranges. A bit of shadow play uses the dark orange and dark green. The cityscape is implied but avoids realism.

New sketches were created with the idea for "Orange Mint" on the middle right.

I am reading "You Say to Brick", a biography of architect Louis Kahn written by Wendy Lesser.

"You Say to Brick: The Life of Louis Kahn"  by Wendy Lesser

The title is Kahn's reference to his method of talking to materials and asking them what they want to become. I am finding myself attempting to apply this method by looking at a design sketch and saying "Okay sketch, what colors would you like to have? What would you like to convey?" It is a bit odd at first, almost as if you are giving up control. It is not necessarily what you want the sketch to be when turned into a textile work (after all, as artists we can be a bit self involved), but what it wants to be. 

I like Kahn's way of thinking about what a material or design wants rather than what it needs.

"Industrial Park" in progress  Lori LaBerge  2018

Another work titled "Industrial Park" (in progress) was developed from the sketches made. The original vertical rectangle was changed to a half circle. The design basically said "I want to be an industrial park (this developed the title) and I want a half circle with a curve like the top of the blue and yellow sections have. Because industrial parks can have dull colors, make my half circle bright red."

Without using Kahn's method, I may have made the yellow door like section the focus by using a brighter color or more contrast against the blue. This may have worked, but I look forward to seeing how that red works when the piece is completed. Well, with Kahn's method I know who's boss and it seems to be the art itself.