Surya Quilt

 

"Surya" 47 x 45 inches

My quilt "Surya" was juried into the SAQA exhibit "Light the World", thrilled. This exhibit is scheduled to debut at the European Patchwork Meeting in France in September.

Made a decision early last year to focus and get some work juiced into some SAQA shows as I think it's an amazing organisation and they do a fabulous job of promoting quilting as an art form. So far so good, out of three applications, I've had two accepted.

So here's how it happened: I made a list of the SAQA calls for entry that appealed to me, I noted the deadlines and made some notes and let my ideas stew and develop for awhile. I used a royalty free image of the sun that I purchased from a website of stock images, making sure it was of a very high resolution. I then played with the image in Photoshop, a computer drawing program and then sent it off to Pixalili Ltd. a digital printing service here in Ireland (got to promote the local companies!)

Got it back from the printers, threw it up in the longer and got to quilting, which took awhile and lots on concentration, but I got there.

Decided then that I wanted to add some symbols and depth to the piece, so made a couple of stencils and got out the oils sticks and the stencil brushes and off I went.

Started with a skull, a memento more, in the background, then had to lighten it.

Next was the Sanskrit word for Sun "Surya" which was also stencilled.

Using different colours and sizes of circles I then stencilled a circle within a circle symbol to complete the piece.

 

details

    

Artist statement: 

"Surya" is a Sanskrit word that means the Sun and it is the symbol in the

centre of the quilt. Surya is the name of the Hindu God of the Sun, the Lord

of Light and Day. In the Buddhism tradition of the Far East Surya is one of

the twelve Devas or temple guardians.

The circle within a circle is an ancient symbol representing eternity, the sun

and the alchemical symbol for gold.

The Sun is both creator and Destroyer, the giver and taker of life.

I understand and live in a state of dichotomy and contradictions and have

always been drawn to the circle within a circle symbol. The sun lights our

world, but only we can light the fire of love, hope and kindness in ourselves,

one day at a time, building and layering with each step and breath.

Buried beneath the layers of circles is a skull outline, a Memento Mori, a

reminder that we all walk this astonishing planet for a brief time and should

strive to make the most of both the light and dark, for without one the other

can't exist.