Going Below the Surface!

This series of blog posts describes the process I used to make the commissioned Palm Canyon art quilt shown below.  Today’s post is describing the area on the quilt that I call the "Subsurface". Prior steps are shown in my previous posts. 

Making the Subsurface

If you look at this photo you see a cut away of the earth's surface showing what goes on below ground. It is separated from the surface by dark bias strips. That is the area I am talking about today. 

Since this quilt was made for someone who is a geologist, I wanted the subsurface to look "correct". Part of what this person loves about the Palm Canyon area is her understanding of the geologic processes that helped to form it.  She sent me some links to a college geology professor’s notes and photos to use as reference. It was like going back to school!  I found many of these photos very helpful for designing the subsurface, as described here.

Disclaimer – Although I worked for years with geologists, I am not a geologist. But I looked at the photos and got ideas for the design that I am going to describe here. This is a simplified, layperson’s description of what I wanted the subsurface to look like:

• ·        Layers of rocks and soils are deposited on top of each other over eons of time. These layers look different – color variation, size of rocks and pebbles, etc.
• ·        Earthquakes shove a part of this layering in one direction or another, so the layers angle up and down. Sometimes the shoving causes rocks to come to the surface and stick out.
• ·        Some of these layers get completely folded.
• ·        Earthquake faults separate areas and cause discontinuous sections.
• ·        Big rocks get in the middle of the soil layers in places.

I am sure any geologist reading this is chuckling at this time, but those were my rules of thumb. And although I may not know what I’m doing, I did pass my drawing by the geologist client and she gave it the thumbs up.

So here are some photos of the subsurface.

folding

different angles

fault lines

 Notice the variety of colors and textures, different angles, folding, rock "inclusions", jutting to the surface, etc. I did my best to capture this in fabric. 

rock inclusions

jutting to surface

After all the rock pieces were in place, I  laid tulle over the entire subsurface to give it a darker value than the above ground area. I wanted it to be distinctly different looking. I also sewed bias strips along the fault lines and the barrier between the surface and subsurface to help further separate these two areas. 

That's enough science for today. My next post will be the finishing of this quilt. 

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Transects In Time

This art quilt was previously referred to as "Lithologic Landscape" and has now been renamed "Transects In Time". I am glad to report that it is finished and delivered to it's new owner. It will hang in the Regional Water Quality Control Board office in San Luis Obispo.

The Regional Water Quality Control Board is charged with protecting the waters of the State of California and this art quilt shows the breadth of their responsibility. It depicts common human activities, some of which have the potential to impact the subsurface soils or groundwater, or surface waters such as lakes.  Surface activities include commercial businesses (diners, dry cleaners, shoe store, sporting goods, bakery, gas station, etc.), recreational lake usage, oil storage, farming, and residential use. A cross-section of the subsurface is also shown. In this depiction, one of the oil storage tanks has a leak that has impacted the subsurface.  A groundwater well has been installed to monitor this leak. One commercial business, a dry cleaner, also has a release to the subsurface.

Different fabrics have been assigned to represent various soil types including sand, silty-sand, silt, clay and bedrock. The leaks are made with beading on the fabrics. The oil leak uses yellow-orange beads and the dry cleaner leak uses red-orange beads. The shape of the beading is intended to be similar to how the chemicals would travel through the subsurface.

oil spill leak and well



dry cleaner leak

A variety of fibers are used to represent different subsurface lithologic layers, including velvets, cottons and metallic/poly blends. Surface features are made primarily with cotton fabric, with tulle overlay in some areas. Embroidery and beading are used through-out to add details.  The landscape has been mounted on black quilted fabric. The overall size is approximately 28" x 48". It was a fun challenge and its very satisfying to have it done.



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