Thursday, June 27, 2013

New Work: Ruthanne Rocha

 Last week I finished quilting this magnificent piece by my friend Ruthanne Rocha who is a retired schoolteacher living in Miranda, California. It is still in progress, so I will show more photos of the work once it's completed.
The inspiration for this art quilt came from photos Ruthanne took of the Masai women in the Serengeti while traveling in Tanzania 18 months ago.
Ruthanne travels the world and takes tons of gorgeous photos while also creating the most wonderful travel videos that you could possibly imagine. When she arrives back home, she spends many long hours narrating her films and adding authentic traditional music from that particular region.
Ruthanne thoroughly researches the history and culture of each country before she visits, and she travels with a group of people who relish visiting places that are off the beaten path.
The colors in this piece are drop dead gorgeous. Ruthanne has made several pieces of hand beaded jewelry that will now be added as embellishments.
The piece will be called Masai Women of the Serengeti (I think). This women was mauled by a lion and had severe scarring on her face. The faces are machine stitched and are solid threadwork.
I've decided that I want to be Ruthanne when I grow up, although I'm not quite sure when that will be.

3 comments:

Norma Schlager said...

This is beautiful! Are the faces photo transfers that are stitched over? They are so realistic and you're right about the colors being stunning.

Unknown said...

I also lover Ruthanne's choice of colors. The background with the traditional piecing works very well with the realism of the women. She has done a wonderful job on this piece.

Helen from Hobart said...

I find it fascinating that the landscape and clothes are mostly straight colour, but she has carefully noted and reproduced the shadows of the faces and arms.

Obviously these are what her good eye focuses on - the reality and character of the individual people rather than their surroundings.