I was going to add some more photos from Iran ( lots more still to share) but then I went off track when reading Olga's blog and got to thinking about how ideas for pieces of work can seem suddenly relevant after a few years laid to rest. Perhaps some have a greater gestation period than others or need to be put aside for a while. The paintings of Atsuhide Ito that Olga highlighted really resonated for me with some ideas and sample pieces I made in 2004. I hadn't had my digital camera that long and coming home from the Festival of Quilts I snapped out of the train window and really liked the blurred landscapes and the reflections off the carriage windows. I experimented with printing double images on cotton and overlaying with silk organza for that months Journal quilt
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig8MFJkXVy5TPuuDddT1cIQkCa9omU9uoB5mtyKnUOrNIASWGNsuTrc4EdyjqO-ZekgHpIZ_RcC75TI5mgbQKoqqm-iwWL5UTHm-1rkLNOprxw811ynW0YDnaaCjL9Cl6CnCXOEWUWY5E/s320/04+august+train+journal+1.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1tQkfqMUd03DdXRfcDB7Fgnl6U2jOiYwGd7tf1B1d03Mukw4oH7-jTK5EfQr9v6vsSB3VxmhohTvVox8O7unStnGBKvzbYaP4N_3Op3XIgTBOSlLdn_KSPxPkb-2vEm3L1zcuxELRXtM/s320/train+seq2.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKv_-XPV-32RlpKnQf55Qhvan4Z95oO0wqBCpcj7CZmUx0rUyMzxvUAi7T3BTIqxva1wZC-pPh5LAnussuL8pDoSlFiuePQmVrCLP5WUpphgJg8HeQdamWNBkogkR7AWO5_ATO9-Ze52g/s320/train+seq4.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghdUTPVWtIZ977JNxLYX9IV4CahgTXtkRkXm1eYyjFukzp6q3TR8v70frypjSskF_utYNQq1698GZKSNm2vCB8fJhXjwVcb8pYL9Z3M98UEvG99-8fSzxv7q0LJpMGALHw44eTBCiZ40U/s320/train+seq6.jpg)
I still continued to take pictures from trains including a trip to Japan - I loved the familiarity of the images ( tracks, pylons , stations, etc) but also the differences -, the scale of landscape, the colours (bright green rice fields) and shapes of buildings. I have a whole folder called (imaginatively! )Japan Train - some images below.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEW9n5vhdZcO_YUKE2mL9Rib4PRLZH3_FKH52StatPMqaMWVkaH__4F1stJAq7i6bSrMyVnhGE2ADRBhbdtMjTTWOnk5TRoSQ3ICBnKfQJ428asJ1jxpRDAS00qPN1aCZFPbizGKhi41o/s320/jt16.jpg)
So why haven't I worked since on blurred train images? I think that might go back to 7/7 2005 when I was on the last train from Kings Cross seconds before the bombs went off. I was at a meeting in Peterborough and thought I would be stranded there with no information about what had happened to friends and family. In the end I got home very late thanks to someone giving me a lift well out of his way and coming into Ealing from Reading on the train. My July Journal quilt was based on that experience and I did think of using photos I'd taken previously on that route and calling it 'the Journey home' but it felt wrong - it was too obvious , too personal and quilts with meaning spelt out are not my style.
But I'm excited now about re-visiting the idea of a 'train' quilt , especially with the Japanese images. Just don't read anything into it........
6 comments:
go for it. beautiful idea.
I'm with Jude. I love the images and I think there's real potential there.
Oh! this is amazing and beautiful!
Yes I like these images too. I was saddened to read of your experineces with trains and I would have felt the same. Perhaps you could take a new journey somewhere to develop some pieces in a similar vein?
For format - why not a folding book? That would add the "personal interaction" dimension as the viewer turns the pages. I like the idea but haven't actually tried making a fabric book ... yet ...
The final photo has resonance with the work of Donald Hamilton Fraser - http://www.brookgallery.co.uk/artist.php?arid=16, for example.
Thanks for all the support and encouragement.
I like the idea of doing a fabric book but probably not for this project - I want to maintain the linear qualitity of trains: the carriages, the trainlines.
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