"Hiking Through Forest Park"
- Kathie Kerler
- 12 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Forest Park is a 5,200 acre gem located in the city of Portland, not far from where I live. It provides critical refuge for hundreds of native wildlife and plant species and acts as an important air and water filter. With more than 80 miles of trails, it is one of the largest urban parks in the United States.
I asked myself how I could convey the essence of Forest Park. For my second wall hanging centered on Conversing With the Earth, I again went minimalistic, using stamps and screens. First I painted a background with green, gold, and brown fabric paints, which I sprayed and scrunched for visual texture.
To represent plant life, I decided upon a combination of a screen print and hand stamps. The screen print is Thistle by Jane Dunnewold.
I painted with green and brown textile paints, texturing the fabric, to use for the stamp backgrounds. Next, I freely cut out rectangles using pinking sheers. My intent was to create a crystallographic composition that felt natural in the way the park is natural. Here is a layout showing thistles stamped on paper, auditioning screen colors, and the rectangles prior to stamping.
I carved stamps from my own photos of ferns and pine cones, representing two of the forest's primary plant species. The mountains stamp stands for the Tualatin Mountains, overlooking NW Portland. Forest Park stretches for seven miles along their eastern slopes.
Two of my stamped samples. The pine cone shows how I outlined them with pen for greater definition and emphasis.
Fused rectangles and screen printed thistles.
To continue with the minimal style, I embroidered with either a running stitch or French knots to secure the fused appliqués. For the quilting, I decided to cross-hatch. While structured, it does not adhere to a perfectly even grid. I quilted only up to the appliqué and the screened images so that they would pop forward from the background. For the edge finish, I felt the wall hanging needed a narrow border rather than a faced edge, which is my more typical treatment for art quilts.
I wasn't happy with the negative space directly in the middle. I may not have positioned all of the thistle screens as well as I should have. As a nod to the animals in the park, I thought of the raptors and cut shapes from a stencil.
First I tried one bird.
Maybe two would be better.
I struggled with this small detail. To be more of less certain of my decision, I selected a color and stenciled birds on fabric, cut them out and positioned them on rectangles. I was also trying to decide whether to stencil the birds directly on the background or feature them on the rectangle appliqués.
I went with the latter idea: stenciled birds on rectangles. Following is a detail image of the screened thistle and the fused and embroidered stamped appliqués.
Finally, should you be fortunate to hike through Forest Park, take a moment to rest on a bench and admire the view.
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