Dye Painting: Navy Quilts – Part 2

Simply irRESISTible show opens today at Some Things Looming Gallery in Reading, PA.

My Tangled Webs #1 and #4 are included in this show.  If you’re in the Philadelphia, PA area, please check it out.  There is an opening reception 4-6pm today and the show will be up through Nov14.

Click on the link above for more information and to see some of the work that’s in the show.  I’m hoping they will post more images of the show after the opening and I will add a link here on my blog to more images if they become available.

Navy Quilts Update

I’ve made more progress this week on my two textile paintings for the Navy Quilt Show.  See my previous post for an overview of this project.

Navy Quilt #1 (in progress) ©2010 Ayn Hanna, ~40"x40", Textile painting (dye painted whole cloth cotton)

Quilt #1

Quilt #1 (above) is a dye-painted collage of Naval Aviation images from Captain Bill’s career. Clockwise from middle left:

– The tail of a Navy A-7E  Corsair II aircraft from the VA-87 Golden Warriors “War Party” Squadron which he commanded.

– A Navy A-3 (twin engine jet) Sky Warrior aka “‘whale”, one of the many aircraft he flew.

– Nose of a Navy F-8U Crusader, one of the primary aircraft he flew.

– An F-9F Panther, another of the aircraft he flew.

– A LSO (Landing Signal Officer).  As Captain Bill says, he spent too many hours “waving”, controlling aircraft landings.

– A Navy A-7E Corsair II aircraft, one of the primary aircraft he flew.

– Aircraft Carrier USS America (CVA-66):  Captain Bill was the first pilot to get 600 aircraft carrier landings aboard USS America.

– Background – Middle East Map.  One of the world’s regions in which Captain Bill flew missions.

Using dye thickened with print paste, I painted these elements on a piece of soda ash soaked cotton fabric.  I also painted on resist in some areas (flight deck, water in lower right), to retain some white areas before painting over it with dye.  I’ve now washed out the dye and the next step with this one is that I’ll throw it on my long arm quilting machine and start stitching.

Navy Quilt #2 (in progress) ©2010 Ayn Hanna, ~40"x40", Textile Painting (dye painted on cotton fabric)

Quilt #2

This piece has started as another dye-painted whole cloth.  For this one, I made a bunch of stencils of the many different aircraft Captain Bill flew in the Navy, and started out by stenciling some of them all over the fabric with resist, so that when I painted dye over it, some areas would remain as white.  Next, I spray-painted (burnt orange) dye over the whole cloth, let it soak in and eventually dry, and then I stenciled some more planes with resist over the first color, and sprayed more dye (olive green) over the first color.  This dye mixed with the orange dye in some areas.

Spray-painting olive green dye over cloth with resist-stenciled planes and 1 layer of burnt orange dye already on it.

I let the green dye dry and stenciled some more planes and some cockpit dials with resist and then spray-painted one more layer (a dark blue/black) over the entire piece.  When washed out all of this dye and resist, I got the somewhat muddled mess below:

Navy quilt #2 (in progress) before discharging, ©2010 Ayn Hanna, 40"x40", Textile Painting

Just as in doing a painting or a print, it’s a process of addition and subtraction to reach the final image.  When I got to this point, I decided the next step was to pull back some of the lights into the piece, so I stenciled some of the planes that are barely visible in the cloth, back into it, using discharge paste.  The discharge paste worked to remove some of the dye paint, and that’s how I got the first image of this Quilt #2 above – it has more of the white/light planes back in it.

My next steps with this piece will be to bring more light back into it, with both discharge and possibly some reverse applique, and work to create more definition of shape and more interesting line quality (with stitch) and bring another color or two into it.

Stay tuned: I’ll post more images as these progress.