The principles of design include something about repetition with variation. This I take to mean it's good to repeat a shape or a line in a piece of art, but don't repeat it exactly--change the color or the size. And odd numbers are a good thing.
So I'm hand stitching these horizontal lines (in various sets of odd numbers--3, 5, 7, and 1), trying to space them a little randomly, varying the exact start and stop.
For some reason (ha), it's not hard to make the actual stitches different sizes. But every time I place the needle to start a new line, it automatically wants to be the exact same distance as between the last two lines. I have to specifically think every time: Vary this line. I can't do it without thinking.
Is that because the brain wants order and regularity? Then why do the art mavens want otherwise? Is repetitiveness more soothing? Why is irregularity interesting?
Such are the boring trains of thought brought about by hand stitching--mind you, I like the look of these stitches well enough to keep doing it, but the actual doing is kind of boring.
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1 comment:
Well gee, How boring can it actually be when it's provoking questions like the one posed in the post? I'd say that it's not "boring" but rather "mind settling" that allows for lots of random thoughts about the neuro-psychological process of balance and symmetry.
Of course that's a comment from someone who likes to hand stitch:)
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