CLAIRE PASSMORE artist
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Meltwater: Rising Tides

3/9/2021

 
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Meltwater: Rising Tides Claire Passmore©2021

I have been working on my latest piece for the past month and am relieved that is was finished just before the required deadline of August 31st.  This is the third of these draped art quilts I have made and I am really beginning to better understand and enjoy the nature of creating work that has no definite form or end. Combining and stitching long strips of fabric and then allowing gravity to become part of the creative process means I have far less control over their final form. It is interesting to note that although each of the three pieces has started out with virtually the same component parts, they have each taken on their own passing form once hung. It also means that although I have taken a photograph of this piece - it will never look the same again, as next time it is suspended gravity will undoubtedly make it look a little different. 

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perito_Moreno_Glacier
The colour of glacial ice is a magical thing - we are used to pure water being colourless and snow and ice being white but glacial ice is a lot different from the stuff we get out of the freezer. This ice has been in situ for such long time that it has become ultra compacted, so much so that its crystaline structure absorbs all wavelengths of light except blue, which is strongly scattered by the ice crystals. 
In addition, glacier ice contains many air bubbles which become severely squeezed by the high pressures within the dense ice. These bubbles are not always round and can be squeezed into long rods,  flat planes and can even move around within the solid ice. Because of these small bubbles some areas of the ice can also take on a coarse, bubbly appearancewith small bubbles, especially  near the ablation areas of a glacier where evaporation or melting take place. In contrast, coarse clear ice is free of bubbles and is the bluest ice of all. This kind is usually found near the margins and terminus of a glacier.

To capture these various colours I used turquoise and black dye and then added pleats, layers and stitch to add shadows and changes in value.
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For the whiter, coarser bubbly ice I explored crocheting a variety of recycled fibres - recycled jeans, dishcloths, merino wool and an unknown fibre from a garment I unravelled. 
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To complete the piece I wound more than a kilometer of the same recycled fibres into cords to drop from the fabric swags to pool onto the ground.

There are more images of this piece on my website www.clairepassmore.com/water.html - just scroll downwards). Alternatively, click below to view the video.
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Thanks for reading. Keep well.
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Ruth Hale
3/9/2021 11:10:18 am

Absolutely beautiful and so thoughtful really like it.

Claire Passmore
3/9/2021 11:21:39 am

Thank you Ruth, I appreciate you taking the time to comment on this new piece. Best wishes, Claire

Lydie Bihlet
3/9/2021 11:12:28 am

Claire ton œuvre est un enchantement.... tout simplement grandiose....
J'ai beaucoup aussi apprécié tes commentaires .
Merci pour ce partage .
Avec toute mon amitié
Lydie

Claire Passmore
3/9/2021 11:24:33 am

Merci Lydie, tu es très gentille. J'espère que tu vas bien. Bon fin d'été,
Claire
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Jennie lorton
3/9/2021 11:36:52 am

Claire I am in awe of your work , just wanted to say how well you have caught the beautiful blue you can see in the icebergs which we saw off Greenland.

Claire Passmore
3/9/2021 03:45:14 pm

Hi Jennie, thanks so much for your message - I am so glad you say the colour is representative of glaciers you have seen in person. The only glacier I have been up close to is the terminus of Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere (Franz Josef Glacier) in New Zealand, and the weather was really bad, making it difficult to see much.

Magret
3/9/2021 07:47:00 pm

Its hard to believe that when we look at the Perito-Moreno-Glacier we see Blue instead of white for ice.
You have captured the colour, and the cragginess of the ice in your work ,its just amazing, but sad to think of what is happening.
Thank you for another inspiering piece of Art.

Claire Passmore
4/9/2021 08:26:53 am

Hello Magret, thanks for your message, the colours are amazing aren't they? And the repurcussions of the ice melting so quickly are indeed very worrying. Keep well.


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  • Home
  • Artworks
    • Folded work
    • Free Standing work
    • Ceiling Suspended work
    • Draped Work
    • Wall Hung Art Quilts
    • Video
  • Exhibitions
  • About Claire
    • Biography
    • Artist Statement
    • Resume
    • Publications
  • Enquiries