my version of lace

I thought I'd share more new artwork today. I had created this work over this past autumn and managed to finish it in time to debut at my exhibit this November. It is a continuation of my St. Pete Lace/Piterskoie Kruzhevo series which began with this piece that I created for the SAQA Auction. I enjoy working in the same format on several pieces at once. It gives me a chance to work out variations in design and makes for a nice presentation, especially for small work. All these pieces measure 12"x12", one of my favorite sizes and shapes to work with. St. Petersburg (as you might have noticed) permeates my art on many levels. For this work I used poetry about St. Petersburg by the famous Russian poet Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin, specifically an expert from his epic poem Mednii Vsadnik/Bronze Horseman. One of my favorite passages is this:

I love thee, city of Peter's making;
I love thy harmonies austere,
And Neva's sovran waters breaking
Along her banks of granite sheer;
Thy traceried iron gates; thy sparkling,
Yet moonless, meditative gloom
And thy transparent twilight darkling

For the full translation take a look here. Of course I am prejudiced and like the Russian version much better, so that's the version I used for the background of all six pieces. Printed and decoupaged over stretched canvas. For the second layer, I used photos I took of the buildings in my favorite city, printed them on Extravaganza, layered with scraps of various fabrics underneath and stitched by hand and machine. The third and final layer is my version of lace. To me all the wrought iron gates, banisters, window closures and fences are the lace of St. Petersburg. I played in Photoshop with my photographs of these, then printed them out on TAP and transferred to my work, and for good measure added more stitching on top. A detail shot. All the pieces installed together.