Chinese Lanterns

 

“Chinese Lanterns”
36.5 x 41.5" Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2023
White cotton fabric, acrylic textile paint, cotton batting, cotton backing.
Wholecloth painted, stenciled, free-motion quilted.

I completed this piece a while ago, but haven’t faced and finished it yet, because I was mulling over whether to crop it, vertically or horizontally, or not at all. I even asked advice on social media, something I almost never do, because I was so conflicted (unusual for me!). In the end, I think I will keep it as it is, like this. 

I think the problem arose because I usually work from my photos, and decide on the composition and cropping as I am taking the photo. In this case I worked from my drawings of individual lanterns, and set up the composition so that I could crop in later. Then once I was done, I was uncertain, and perhaps a bit hesitant to hack off the lovely bits at the top and bottom, and wasting all that time painting and quilting. 

The results of the polling on social media were mixed, but if I did crop it, I think I would have gone with cropping in on the sides.