Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Another TIF Piece

I spent quite a lot of time thinking about the Take It Further Challenge Concept for this month:



"Do you ever notice the little things, the small moments, the details in life? This months challenge is to do just that, pay attention to the tiny details. Sometimes the small things become emblematic for something larger."



Even though I have already completed a piece for March, I could not stop thinking about this idea. The whole concept became wrapped up with eyes in my mind and would not go away. I thought about doing a realistic eye, but doing just one felt a bit weird. I did not want to do a multiple object piece, though, because that would be too complex. This should be a simple presentation. Eventually I came across some Egyptian hierglyphics in a magazine and I knew what I wanted to do!



This symbol is called both the Eye of Ra and the Eye of Horus. Many references use the names interchangeably and it is generally a symbol of protection and of royal power from the gods. However, if you do more research you find that the two names do not really refer to the same thing and the "details" of the legends and symbolism are different. One is even sometimes less benevolent than the other. But I will go with this: A small thing - eye - that is emblematic of something larger - power and protection.



The Eye of Horus was fused onto black cloth and then stitched using a machine blanket stitch. I downloaded a picture of multiple eyes from Craftzine and printed them onto a strip of fabric for the bottom border which was also stitched with the machine blanket stitch. A border was added to bring the piece to about 10" square.

4 comments:

Vivian said...

very interesting!

Orice said...

This is one of my favorite of your recent flurry of creations. You carried out the idea of an "eye" to perfection. Love-er-lee, Liz.

Beverly said...

I really like the symbolism you found, and how you interpreted it for the challenge. I just drew a blank with this one, and the colors left me cold too.

Thanks for the inspiration/creativity sites you recommended. I'm playing this weekend in the hopes the muse will come visit again!

Meg in Tennessee said...

I like your interpertation of the challenge this month. your eye was wonderful and so were the fabric choices.