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06 January 2013

The eyes have it

Making "portraits" out of cloth is a process that amazes me. I've not tried it, and have no idea of what's involved - or where to start. This one made me stop and look hard -

What would you say about "Green Eyes" by Jim Hay (this is a detail)? I love the use of colour and the many, various little bits of fabric. It's a stylised face, and making it in cloth rather than painting it stylises it at yet a further remove from "reality" - but you look into those compelling eyes and get a bit uncomfortable... So, it communicates; but what is it saying ...

Jawlensky's portraits come to mind (and - completely different! - Deidre Scherer's portraits) -
Alexei Jawlensky, Mystic Head, 1917 (image from here)
The "Green Eyes" image is from the weekly SAQA bulletin and advertises the Battle Creek Artist Guild Group Show at Olivet College in Michigan, which is on from 17 Jan to 12 Feb, if you're in that neck of the woods. See Jim's  work on the web at www7.wind.ne.jp/jimhay, where it says: "Jim Hay is an American artist dealing with the limited working space of his small Japanese house. Kimonos and easily rolled up scrolls point the way toward fabric assemblage as a solution suitable for our global village. It is clean, needs few tools, offers all the colors of the world's cloth and can be rolled up for storage and easy shipment abroad."

More green eyes in art:
Henri Matisse, The Girl with Green Eyes, 1908 (available here)
"Matisse's Girl with Green Eyes" in recycled tin, by Barbara France (from here)
Another Jawlensky, Young Girl with Green Eyes, 1910 (available here)
Green eyes in Pop Art (here)
Make-up Box (The Green Eyes) by Ion Tuculescu (from here)
mixed media by J B Wynne (from here)

a very famous image by Steve McCurry
So many cats have green eyes - I had to include just one image -
Two Cats with Green Eyes by Popo Iskandar (from here)
Other green eyed-things include  fairy-tale princesses, some of them at least ... and things that go bump in the night ... and extraterrestrials ...
Nostalgic?? They think so...

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