Reflection #28

This is one of a series of quilts in which three dimensional, constructed tucks are incorporated into a patterned background. The background fabric was painted with fiber reactive dyes, in a radiating design of graduated rainbow hues, spinning out from a hot, yellow-orange core, like a surreal sunrise.

Each of the �" "tucks" was constructed from two different fabrics. The right sides of the tucks are made from fabrics dyed in a forty-seven-color gradation of pure rainbow hues. The left sides of the tucks graduate from black to deep blue-violet to white. The use of color and value (light to dark) gradations, and the twisting of the tucks from side to side, create the illusion of movement and light across the surface of the quilt. Because different color gradations are used on the right and left sides of the three-dimensional tucks, the appearance of the quilt can be changed significantly by changing your point of view. I like to call the quilts in this series "viewer participation art."

A radiating, string pieced border surrounds the three-dimensional panels, drawing the eye into the center. Half of the border was constructed from alternating strips of rainbow colors and black. In the other half of the border, strips of painted fabric alternate with strips dyed in the black to blue-violet to white gradation used on the left sides of the tucks.