NTAQ Challenge for September: Takashi Murakami

Several months ago our local SAQA group toured the Takashi Murakami exhibit, "The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg," at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.  It was an explosion of color and texture, and so when it became my turn to choose a challenge piece for NTAQ, I chose a closeup of one of the paintings that I had photographed during our visit.  I'm not sure what the painting was called, but I loved the colors and textures.

The group had a good time with the picture.
Wendy chose to focus on the wild mix of textures and colors.  She made two pieces:

Wendy #1

Wendy #2

Andrea made a four part piece focusing on the tentacles:

Andrea's piece

 Jaye used some really wild mille fueille fabric as background fabric:

Jaye's piece

Kay stitched a shibori tentacle and dyed it using indigo:

Kay's piece

Rhonda painted her piece on canvas.  Really cool!

Rhonda's piece

Bethany pieced a brightly textured, swirly piece:

Bethany's piece

As for mine, I have to admit that I had not finished it in time for the September meeting.  In fact, I was in Canada at the time of the meeting.  And to be completely truthful, I had not finished my piece before I left.  But I finished it this week.

I started with a photo I had manipulated during Susie Monday's online "Art on the iPad" class.  I had layered a picture I took at the Murakami exhibit with a picture of me standing in front of a salt marsh on Cape Cod.  The assignment was to make a manipulated selfie. But I loved the way the picture turned out:

I printed three copies of the fabric on 8-1/2" x 11" muslin.  I used Tailor Sew-In Colorfast fabric sheets and ran them through my Epson inkjet printer.  And then I pulled some fabrics to coordinate with the photo.  And some spotted and dotted pieces:

I sliced up the three pictures and started filling in with the red, gold, black and printed fabrics.  This is what I came up with.  It is about 17" x 17":

 All of the Murakami challenge quilts (except mine) laid out on Wendy's living room floor:

The challenge for October was a painting by Picasso.  More on that tomorrow!

I'm linking this post with Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday, Confessions of a Fiber Addict and Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday.  Go see all the wonderful work there!