Katya Hutchinson - Dogwood and Dunes

By -
Small Kite

Big Kite

Dogwood and Dunes 
Katya Hutchinson 



“Connection” implies many layers of meaning, especially when pertaining to international exchange.  There are physical, cultural, and interpersonal connotations of the word.  When designing my kite, “Dogwood and Dunes”, I attempted to explore some of these meanings to create something that stood-out as unique, but also successfully created a union between the culture of the Emirate nations and North Carolina.  While my initial concepts relied on a connection of land and sky (featuring clouds and earth symbols) I decided that connection was already being made by the very act of flying the kite itself- we would already be bridging the land and sky by lifting our tethered kites from the ground.  I settled on a simple concept that merged elements of North Carolina aesthetics, and cultural aesthetics of the Emirates.  
Process wise, I stuck to something simple. Because I intended my design to be endlessly repeatable and involve multiple colors, I decided on screen printing. I made nearly twenty of my design, hand coloring the blossoms for some extra dimension and to keep them true to how I saw them in nature. With chinne-colle I was able to arrange and place these multiples on my large kite.  
The predominant feature, the dogwood blossoms, are easily associated with North Carolina.  Not only is the flower our state flower, but they are something that impressed me after moving to the state- they are heavily featured around ECU’s campus and the neighborhoods surrounding, and when they are in bloom they pop against the surrounding greenery.  Using the dogwood blossom, I first created a symmetrical design. For inspiration I relied heavily on images of Islamic art. Symmetry represents (to my understanding) a sacredness in its perfection which reflects the perfect nature of Allah.  Although traditionally figurative aspects aren’t included in Islamic art, I noticed that the students in our exchange used almost exclusively figurative ideas, and the recurrence of flowers was something I noted. I also used images of varying mehndi and henna designs to influence my pattern, attempting to make something that was reminiscent of the intricate swirls and interwoven florals I found. When scaling the image up, my aim was to mimic a textile pattern, repetitious but ornate like many of the images of pattern’s found in Sharjah’s textile shops in the industrial district. Even the shape of the design (a diamond) was made so that when combined it continued to be symmetrical and geometric in implication.  
Lastly, I chose colors that would be a nod to both the Emirates and to ECU.  I chose gold- as both a nod the gold-rich Emirate nations and the decadent metallic threading of talli as well as showcasing ECU’s university colors of gold and purple. The key lines of my image (although hard to make out due to the thin lines) was a rich earthy brown that what inspired by the deep color of henna on skin before it is set and stained.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

City Roses - Kathryn Tayar

By -
Image
Kat Tayar Large Kite Kat Tayar Small kite    Kite Description  My large kite and one of my small kites were identical in design. I wanted my design to bring forth the similarities between the States and the UAE. To represent a living bond that grows day by day. Both depicted Two skylines of cities surrounding a golden-brown medallion that contains flowers and bees connected by strings. I wanted the cities to mirror each other in an attempt to show the similarities between our two homes. Each skyline is painted with a gray scheme to push these back, giving distance between the cities. I wanted the cities to be far from each other on opposite sides since we sit so far away from each other. The gray is also a neutral color amongst the bright blue of the sky, allowing the blue to pop. A fresh and bright blue sky filled with fluffy white clouds has a feeling of calm peace. A day full of possibilities and new friendships.   Under both...
Read more

Joel Morris - Burqa and Dome

By -
Image
Big Kite "Burqa" Big Kite "Dome" For my kites, I wanted to use the theme of connection, and not only try and connect to the culture of the UAE, but tie in my aesthetic as well. I initially had three small kites and a large  k ite  that I cut down to size.  For my first designs, I was thinking of creating two smaller kites, one in the fashion of a woman’s Kandura , a  piece of  traditional dress worn underneath the  abaya by women .  My plan was to make a design based on the embroidery found on a woman’s     Kandura sleeves.  I thought of using an underlying geometric tessellation for both kites and one the woman’s, adding  Talli , the metallic embroidery of the Kandura around the edges, and for the man’s, adding a  Tarboosh , the tassel which hangs from the neck of the men’s Kandura .   I eventually changed the design and the final one  featured an Islamic ...
Read more