The design process is something that is unique to every individual pursuing some avenue of art. Sometimes an artist can pull inspiration from within relying on emotions or ideas. While other artists prefer to pull their inspiration from the world around them, maybe nature or even others. Still some might just prefer a plan. However the process starts, it eventually requires some thought or planning so as to enable it to be carried out and implemented.
This isn’t to say that after all the planning, organizing and even implementing that it will actually become as it was originally intended. Some designs fail, while others go different directions, or are forgotten for a time and then take on a whole new form. Whatever happens a design is usually faced with some sort of change that requires it to be thought over and evaluated. This critical thinking is meant to cause some sort of do over or new rendering of the design in the altered form. The whole process depends on the artist, inspirations, and the design plus the needs of all the parts.
At a recent exhibition, this process could be viewed in a different way. The artists themselves were not thought of that when many of the quilts were made. These artists were typically African-American sharecroppers or slaves. There art was by no means for visual pleasure alone, but rather the more functional use of warmth for the family. The artists were inspired by their need for warmth and protection for their families as well as the shreds of materials available to them. Their plans were probably to make them as big and warm as necessary for their families. Lack of materials or misjudged size could probably account for any change in plans. These people looked to the needs of others and the tools as inspiration. However, the process was only started here and altered once.
More recently in a work by Sandra McPherson (collector), she furthers the design of the original quilters. Rather, than using the quilts for the purpose of warmth, she has altered their initial design to that of art signifying this time in history. McPherson has been inspired by the quilt work and altered it into a form more purely aesthetic and quite possibly as an account of that history in African American designs. She has moved outside the original inspiration and into one of recounting the period through quilt making.
This process continued past its original designers and was eventually altered by a new designer. Original intentions were foregone for a new take on quilt making and the possible implications it can raise in celebrating that past time. The design process is unique to both the creator and the individual work, as seen in the African-American Quilts exhibit.
Photo is courtesy of:
The Nelson Gallery at UCDavis, http://nelsongallery.ucdavis.edu/
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