Making black holes for "Cosmic Dreaming"

As fascinating as the subject of "black holes" is, it was never my intention to create this piece true to its astronomical details so I have called this art work 'Black Holes'- an abstraction of the phenomena of a stellar collapse.

( A stellar black hole (or stellar-mass black hole) is a black hole formed by the gravitational collapse of a star. . from Wikipedia)

This art work started with mark making on various pieces of paper with ink, paint, and stitch.

I collaged those bits of paper together and then digitally transferred the drawing on to silk and free machine stitched the silk collage using dissolvable fabric and overlays of tulle, lace and sequinned fabric. Some hand stitching was also done to add a bit more texture of the piece as well as trapunto quilting in some parts.

I always had the dilemma of whether to hang this piece vertically or horizontally? Some days I like it hanging with the tail downwards, but then I also liked the sense of movement sideways....

After much advice from other artist friends, anyone visiting our house, and beleaguered family members, horizontal it became.... and with the paper version set behind it! That was not the original plan but somehow it gives the work more substance and the additional layer suggests the shadow of other processes happening in the course of the stellar collapse. Anyway this is how it was displayed in the exhibition, "Cosmic Dreaming" in December-January at Timeless Textiles, Newcastle NSW .

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