Frog or Prince

February always sneaks up on me each year and I suddenly realize I need to come up with something to slide under the dinner plate of my life partner on Feb. 14, as I have done for so many years past. I have been itching to use more digitally printed fabric in my work and, since I use this opportunity to try something a little new or to revisit a technique I haven't used in a while, I began searching photographs for some inspiration and soon came upon what I thought had some possibility.

Photoshop drained it of color and enhanced its textural qualities. The color was going to come from the funky hand-dyed fabric I would print it on, flipping the usual process of foregrounding the photo on a blank or neutral background. I found the print intriguing enough to keep going, adding two kinds of hand stitching and letting the the straight rows run off the bottom of the piece.

By Valentine's Day all was done, except for sewing the facing down in the back and adding a sleeve. These pieces are always small, this one 10 x 8", so I can actually get it reasonably finished in between my bigger projects. And so Tom opened the folder that protected it, looked at it for a minute and said, "Oh, I like this. Do you want to tell me about it?" 

Now I have confronted enough drawings from young grandchildren who proudly present me with something that I have no idea what I am looking at, and that question is always how I begin. So I knew there was a problem here until I realized he was looking at it sideways. On the third turn he had it right side up and began commenting on the design. There was still a problem. The piece was remaining abstract for him and not resolving into a bullfrog (actually one of the many bullfrogs in our pond last summer). 

Were you able to see it? I can see it immediately but I started with the original that was very clear and I knew it was there. So far I have shown this to three other people, all of whom had varying degrees of difficulty seeing the frog but then see it clearly after it is pointed out. I wanted to obscure the frog's presence a bit, as it is in the pond world, and I did succeed in doing that. But I am now trying to decide if I was too successful. Tom, on the other hand, has convinced me he likes it.

The title of this is Centered, something that may be as difficult to achieve as seeing a frog among the duckweed.

And if you are still reading, thanks for the company!

I am linking this to Nina's Off the Wall Friday.