Whispering Feet From the Past: Petroglyphs
| Stitcher: | Mary Ellen Searcy, Colorado |
| Designer: | Mary Ellen Searcy |
| Location: | Hanging in the stitcher's front hall |
| Description: | The petroglyph of this haunting image of feet shows
us whispers of those who walked before us. How long ago
were these feet pecked or chiseled into the dark patina
of the creviced desert sandstone? What did they mean? Is
this Rock Art the same as putting our initials in wet
cement or carving our initials on a tree? Using fabric paints and a variety of techniques, the complex Congress Cloth was created to look like aged desert rock, blackened by rock varnish. Metallic paint was sponged over to show the aging and wearing away of some of the patina before images of feet were stenciled in copper and bronze. The additional shimmering dark patina on the creviced rocks is over stitched with thin rayon thread in resized, irregularly placed stitches purposely allowing the images to be seen, while from the side just the shimmering patina is visible. "Complex Congress Cloth" starts with white Congress cloth that is first painted with fabric paint and then scrunched. When dry, Mary Ellen pounced over them with blue paint to give them the aged look. She then stenciled light and darker footprints with fabric paint on top of that. The last layer was the over-stitching with thin thread so that the layers of painting techniques would show through. |
