After Vermeer, Too - (and so on, and so on)

Devorah Sperber, After Vermeer 1, 2003-2004
4,669 spools of thread, clear vinyl tubing, aluminum hanging apparatus, 4” clear acrylic sphere, steel stand
90 3/8” h x 96 1/4” w

I was looking around on some crafty blogs yesterday and came across a link to the artist Devorah Sperber and her "Thread Spool Works". They are works made up of thousands of spools of thread (partial funding by Coats & Clark), each spool acting as a pixel, that only when view from afar do the spools 'disappear' and join to transform into a whole image. The spool image assembled upside down, with a looking glass placed in front that flips the image to show it right side up. She recreates numerous works by many artists - from Picasso and Rembrandt, to Chuck Close and Jackson Pollock - but in the end it starts to seem a bit gimmicky. I would like to see her work with her own images. She obviously has a good eye, and is more than capable of a good idea, which I think would be better if they were her own.

Maybe I am interested in Sperber's work because I too have a painting entitled After Vermeer (as seen above). Since January 2006 I have set a project for myself where every (or almost every) painting/drawing has a two dimensional, usually upside-down, reproduction of a work by a famous artist. I also try to pick a specific painting to use as inspiration for the work; quoting colour, composition, or mark making. They don't have to be the same artist for both inspiration and inclusion, but sometimes they are.

For example, I used the Degas painting Portrait of Diego Martinelli, 1879 (left) as an inspirational image. I like the haphazardness of the items on the table, and appreciate that this feeling is accomplished with very little information or detail, just loosey-goosey mark-making. As always, I love Degas' off kilter composition, too. Then, as the image included in my painting I used Singer in Green, 1884-5 (right).

Here's how I've interpreted and incorporated them. This picture was taken when the paint was still a bit wet, hence the shine. As I'm miles away from it at the moment (so I can't post a better picture) we'll have to make do with this one.

In turn, the envelope and postcard from my still-life inspired Jodie Anne to make the following collage.

Hence the so on, and so on in the title -- one thing inspires another, and in turn another and so on and so on...