Heaven and Earth Series: Roads to Nowhere

This is a piece I finished in March called Roads to Nowhere.  It's another work in my Heaven and Earth series.  The work measures 70 cm x 70 cm and is based on a satellite image of a military encampment in Iraq.  What fascinated me was the geometry of the roads imposed on this sparse landscape, roads that are almost devoid of buildings, roads that are built not to service a community,but to transport military arms and personnel.  

I have to admit that this was the most difficult piece I have ever done.  I agonised over how to interpret this image that had so little in the way of structure or texture to work with.  The whole time I worked on it I felt decidedly ill at ease.  As I worked it I struggled over how to unite the various disparate elements of the design.  i'd finish one part and think "that works"  and then I'd finish the next and think "that works" and each part seemed to work with that adjacent to it, but the image still disturbed me.  "But if all the bits work, and if they work with the adjacent bits, then the whole thing should work" i thought.  And yet, at the end, I wasn't sure how I felt, or rather it still made me uneasy.  "OK, maybe you just have to live with it a while".  So I did.  I had it on the floor next to my worktable for a couple of months and over time I came to feel better and better about it.  I think the difficulty I had in creating the work was clouding my judgement of and emotions towards the finished product.

I started work along the top and top right edges.  Whenever I got stuck on how to work the next part I took a break and stitched in some of the roads.

There were some elements unique to this image that I have never seen before in a satellite image.  For example the well defined triangular forms and the circles with crosses in them that you can see in the image above.  I have no idea what the triangles are, but I'm guessing that the circles with crosses are helicopter landing sites or perhaps targets for airforce exercises.

Above:  Top left hand corner

Random cross hatchings in variegated thread and detail of the river bed that bisects the image diagonally.

The river flat (detail above)  is worked with long laid vertical threads and shorter couching threads of varying lengths.  Although here the threads look lax, they will sit tight and flat when the work is mounted on foam core.

Here, the rectangular forms of buildings make some sense of the roads.

I am very happy with the colour and texture I managed to incorporate into the "brown" area on the left which appeared as a flat brown area on the reference image.   Unfortunately I just could not get a good macro shot of the area but you can see something of the variety of textured stitches used.  The french knots worked with variegated thread look like little glass seed beads.  I love stitching french knots.  They always look great and are so versatile.

Thanks for stopping by.  How do you feel when looking at this work?