More new direction

I decided to keep with the general ideas of what I did in the last piece - black fabric, some three dimensional elements, more experimenting with the surface.

Snake Spirit

As usual, I had an idea what this was going to be, but after a few stitches I got bored and decided to improvise. I had just bought some nice red painters floss. I used the red as the "Alpha Male" - it boldy forged the way into the unknown of the blank fabric. There is always a danger in improvisation. I never take thread out once it is stitched. And you can only cover over thread one or maybe two times with more thread before it gets too thick and impenetrable. So its a do or die type of thing.
The red started forming into lines and geometric patterns. I was thinking Native American animal skin paintings. I added some blue, then green. It started to look like a map. A map of a park perhaps. Grass, water. Then somehow the face emerged, and quickly dominated. After I did the face I knew what I wanted the body to look like, and I knew it would be the bulk of the piece and everything else would be just 'background'. So after that the spontaneity was gone and it became laborious.
But this is not just an image. It is a real spirit. Incarnate. It belongs on an alter, not a wall.