December 2006

Advent
© 2006 Mark Patro
36"x48"

Keeping a Watchful Eye

For those of you keeping a watchful eye on my progress with Size Queen. Here's a little more...

Silence is Their Tool

Silence is Their Tool
(Different Does Not Equal Deficient)
© 2008 Mark Patro
8"x11"

People in same sex relationships are denied complete equality under the law of the United States solely because of xenophobic and homophobic reasons which are primarily justified by ancient religious cultural language and doctrine which places more respect on tradition than on human dignity. Speak up.

Will You Take This Man
© 2008 Mark Patro
2.75"x3.75"

The Weight of the World
© 2008 Mark Patro
36 " x 39"

(The following words are written on the surface of the painting.)

"The world is not perfect. I am not perfect. You are not perfect because your mother is not perfect. Her teachers were not perfect. Religion is far from perfect. Your father and my father are not perfect. There are many things in this world that will never be perfect. All we can do is whatever we do. The burden of the world is that we want it perfect in our own way. It will never happen. We can, however, work toward it."

Quilted Betty

Quilted Betty
8"x10"

Good Tuesday Morning

Quilted Painting #1 (iteration 2)
© 2008 Mark Patro
16 " x 16"

Friday's effort

Yesterday I worked on developing some painted fabrics to use in "Size Queen." They are intentionally simple because they will be used in the shadow side of the face.

These plain muslin fabrics were "painted" by mixing several acrylic paint colors together and diluting them with water. Some of the spots materialize by not completely mixing the paint. Some of spots were added and allowed to dissolve into the wet fabric.

This process reflects how the color fields in my quilt evolve. Using two similarly colored fabrics, sometimes commercially available, and sometimes personally painted, I cut them into strips about 1 1/2" wides and sew them together alternately. Then I cut the sewn together strips into 1 1/2" wide strips (ninety degrees to the original cut) and sew them together in a checker board pattern. The third image is the result.

More Progress on "Size Queen"

I'm not writing much right now, just cutting, sewing, ironing and sometimes coloring fabric. Three of the twelve rows are now complete. My aim is to get another row done by Wednesday...

this will give you an idea of the scale of this work...