As promised here is the progress of the art quilt “Lost N Lava Trail Ride”. I was given a couple of pictures for the subject matter to create the design for this quilt. These pictures were of last years trail ride. As you can see there wasn’t much to these pictures. The sea of yellow cheat grass is the most predominate feature and then a tent, wagon, teepee, and horses. While a good starting point, the challenge was how to create depth and interest in all of that. After much thought I decided to add the mountains in the distance because basically there are mountains all around us in this part of Idaho. My husband and I went for a photo shoot session a couple of weeks ago and I specifically took mountain shots from great distances for this art project . Anyway I am pleased with the results. I like to create art quilt pieces that make you look around at things, and hopefully your eye will wonder all over the picture instead of just at one detail plopped down somewhere. The silouette of a cowboy drinking coffee in the forefront I believe made the statement that in fact this picture is about a trail ride. Another design element I decided to add was the sage brush and lava rock that surrounds us here in Shoshone. Idaho is known for their lava beds that literally flowed across the state millions of years ago. We are not far from the famous “Craters of the Moon” national park that the first astronauts practiced walking on when they were going to the moon. The important thing here is that this “Lost N Lava Trail Ride” art quilt design developed as it went along and I believe became very symbolic of life here in our area. We are a true agricultural area with a lot of cattle and dairy cows tucked in between the fields that produce food for them. These fields are planted in areas around the lava beds. People who settled here had to have a lot of vision and fortitude to last long. The biggest lesson that I learned while creating this pictorial art quilt is to take more notice of what is around me and then to paint a picture of that. It gives people more of a heart connection because they recognize aspects of what they see everyday. I am very happy with quilting aspect of this piece giving more detail and depth to the over all design. Let me know what you think about this art piece and did I capture what I set out to do…..
