quiltersmuse.com Blog

A long time ago, when working with Photoshop Elements photo modification software, I discovered that it is best never to choose “Black and White” as a color combination, even when an old photo IS “Black and White.” If you look closely at the photo, you will notice that there are many gradations of color. One would not think that to be true, but it is. I noticed the variations in Black, just last week, when I was wearing a pair of Black slacks and a Black blazer. White blouses can vary considerably in their degree of whiteness.

In quilting, blank spaces (like expanses of white) can give the eye a place to rest.

In fact, in the absence of “nothing,” surrounding shapes take on more meaning. White can signify snow, as it does in one wall quilt I made just before I went to the hospital for a biopsy. Not knowing whether or not I would be diagnosed with cancer, I made a wall quilt that visually-represented important considerations in my life. The quilt shows my husband and I together in a sleigh. In the distance there are mountains, a moon, and a small stone church with a cross at the top, and nothing else.

As I thought about life and about death, I felt that love and faith were the two main reasons why life itself made any sense at all. I hand quilted the white expanses of fabric so that the scene looked like windblown snow. When the quilt was finished, I’d quilted out the angst and fear of the impending possibilities. And people wonder why quilters quilt?

Yvonne Porcella, an avid Art Quilter, is known for her Black and White checkerboard designs that she often adds to her quilts. Black and White together make a striking statement, but the key to the appreciation of her work is to realize how she adds in color and in what manner.

Just like life itself, not much of anything is strictly “Black and White.” There are always gradations of meanings and interpretations. When someone sees a movie, or reads a story or a poem, that person will judge any content based on his/her own previous experiences. We all slightly misinterpret the intent of a speaker simply because we are not inside his/her head! We can only understand what we “think” the person meant.

Of course, when I was growing up, a standard riddle was, “What is Black and White and Red (read) all over?” The answer was: “a newspaper.” The old Black and White television set that we had in the 1950s certainly was not strictly in those two colors.

The challenge for artists comes when trying to render an image solely in Black and White. By necessity, additional subtle hues must be present in those two basic colors, or the work can look flat and uninteresting. The variance of tonal values seems to be one key to a successful painting or quilt. If one is mixing paints, the color Gray can be achieved by mixing Black and White. I am suggesting that various “shades,” or values, of Gray could add more interest to a two color composition with a limited palette of Black and White.

We will never know everything, and we only learn by doing and by incorporating the suggestions of others, when we are learning the principles of art.

Note: Black, in our society, is often associated with death and mourning; and white is linked to wedding dresses. Color usage changes across time and across cultures. Is it in Korea that wedding dresses are Black? In early America, wedding dresses were the “best” dress of two dresses: one dress was an everyday dress and the other a “Sunday best” dress.

Be observant of color, at all times. Appreciate the colors of nature: the sky, the sea, animals, plants, flowers, fish, and people. One of my favorite things to do is to ride through the Vermont countryside in the springtime wearing Polaroid sunglasses, appreciating the many different, emerging colors of Green in the trees, bushes, and fields. It would be a dull world if anything at all was just Black or White. Luckily, we can enjoy every color and the enormity of variations. Did you know that there are more colors than can be seen with the naked eye?

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications