NTAQ Challenge for October: "The Birdcage" by Pablo Picasso

The bird cage, Pablo Picasso, 1944
NTAQ's October meeting started at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center (FWCAC).  Several of our members had missed the opening of "Home Fires," a group show that includes eighteen quilts by Wendy Hook.  It was nice to see the pieces without the opening crowds.
Two of Wendy's quilts, with four sculptures by Cass Hook in the foreground
We enjoyed the show!
Another gallery housed "Janie to Janie" by Becky Wilkes.  Becky apparently collected debris on the shore of Eagle Mountain Lake in Fort Worth for one year.  She photographed each piece in situ and then arranged them in photographic collages.  It was pretty amazing stuff.
A wheelbarrow full of debris
Examining one of the collages
Back at Wendy's house, we showed our Picasso challenge pieces.  Our inspiration was the piece shown at the top of the post, "The bird cage" by Pablo Picasso.  A really cool piece and a rich mine of inspirational shapes, colors and motifs.  We were all inspired by the great shapes.

Wendy's piece focused on the shapes and stripes:
Kay also focused on the triangles.  She had a really cool linen/cotton tweedy fabric in the border:
Bethany's piece had a beautifully rich palette and great use of stripes:
Andrea's riffed off the leaf motif:
I loved Rhonda's use of stripes and changes of scale in her interpretation:
When I looked at this painting, there was a little black comb-like figure that grabbed my eye.  So I decided to focus on that motif in my quilt.  I made a little frame and isolated the figure:
 Here is my inspiration element:
I decided not to stick with the palette in the painting and made the principle figure aquamarine and used black for the background.  I had several other colors I was going to include, but after auditioning them on the design wall, I decided to stick with the two colors.  Well, three actually.  Aquamarine, black and dark gray.  I ended up with this:
I like my little Picasso piece.  It looks rather mid-century modern to me.  Like a little sputnik.  Perhaps I can come up with a clever title that references the sputnik....

Comments

piecefulwendy said…
What fun to see the different takes on the Picasso! Thanks for sharing them. I agree that your quilt does look a bit midcentury modern. Very cool.
Fabulous challenge idea for your group and so very well accomplished!
Norma Schlager said…
Your group always does such a great job with these challenges! Love your piece.