THE SCRIPTURE OF OLD DOORS (Weekly Art Project; 2020)

 The small village of Al Qasr  is pretty much a ghost town.  It is like walking into a past where everyone has just left, so the atmosphere was eerie. Amidst the dust & decay they have left behind something truly precious though.  Breathtakingly precious.
 Above many of the eclectically shaped doors are wooden lintels carved with verses from the Koran. Here's a closer peek...

 They are very very old and worn with time, but oh so exquisitely beautiful.  It is these lintels that I use as my inspiration for this week's art project.

I have a soft spot for the written form of language, particularly those I don't understand & can't decipher. When there is no interpretation of meaning then I can enjoy the script for the marks that they are.  I also enjoy creating script out of various marks & shapes I come across in daily life.  To date I have created scripture using hair , possum bites on pansies & interesting branch shapes as the basis of letter forms.

With the lintel as inspiration, I wanted to give the impression of written language, but not copy what was written.  This means I had to find a source to start a form of writing from.  But where?

 I decided to start with the doors themselves.
Sitting at my computer screen with a pencil, conte crayon & graphite crayon I went through my photos drawing the interesting windows & doors that I'd captured on film. This was a most enjoyable & absorbing task & time just slipped away. At some stage though I realised that if I didn't stop soon I wouldn't have time to translate my ideas into fabric.  I'd had the idea that I could create a boxy-linear sort of script from the shapes of the windows & doors, but to be honest....the more I drew the  less that idea developed.  There was one door though that gave me another idea.

 This door with it's seriously deteriorated wooden slats had some wonderful wiggles & shapes especially with such a dark interior background providing a contrasting negative space. I made the decision to rotate this photo & draw a section.

 This was the result.
Using the central shapes as my starting point I started to widen some lines, thin others, erase some lines & extend others until eventually I had a series of marks that could be described as ancient script!

At this point in my blog, you would usually expect me to talk about choosing fabrics, layering up, stitching in & then cutting back etc.  Alas, due to the frustrations of a malfunctioning camera, I am not taking you on a cutting back journey today!  Instead, I'll take you directly to the end product!

 Voila!
I know what you're thinking....did that REALLY come from the drawing above??????
Yes..it most certainly did! 
I've added the border of triangles at the top as a nod to the original lintels which often had a simple patterned border.
This has been quite a process & took a lot of concentration, but I am very pleased with the result.

I couldn't help myself, I had to try it in my Layout app & this is one of the options it could become, a multi-repeat pattern. What fun!
 I hope that you have had the delicious experience of total absorption in something inspiring this week.  Stay safe & stay creative!