Christine Barker

From years of singing, I have countless fragments of songs that pop into my head, and as often as not, define perceptions I’ve been trying to figure out. The most recent one:

“These must be the bones of a fallen angel… They’re in pieces and parts….”

This song Pieces and Parts by Laurie Anderson seemed a good description of how I was thinking about my archetypes. I also have random thoughts that get written in my journal like:

archetypes–architexture…(sp. Ha…) archetypes are the structure of our persons, the texture of us…

So I summarized. My series might be a kind of structure, a piece or part of me that I’ve ‘figured ‘ out. This led me to my bookshelf and a favourite book of sculptures by Emily Young. She has done some amazing sculpturessome she calls angel heads and others are torsos, all done in exquisite stone. Sculpture makes me want to touch it. Fabric does the same.

After using a carved shell my daughter brought me from the Marquesas Islands – for Kristin Freeman’s colour analysis challenge in our Embroidery Enthusiasts group – I had a palette of soft tones that were both from the shell, but also from a polished stone, and I had the same colours in fabric and threads.

Inspired by Young’s torsos, I drew, collaged, stitched, and used trapunto to make my fabric torso. Shades of Neutral will likely lead my future collection of archetype torsos.

Shades of Neutral 2022 10”x 8 3/4 “ Mixed Media/Collage NFS freehandimpressions@ gmail.com freehandimpressions.com