Revisiting a Portrait Project

 In our Cutting Edge Fiber Art Group we set up a Portrait Challenge. For my project, I chose to revisit a portrait of St. Joan of Arc, which I started some years ago in a class taught by Rosemary Eichorn. It's been at least ten years ago that I took the class, if not fifteen. It was a fabulous class where she stressed the importance of playing while creating. She called it PLORK, which is a combination of Play and Work. Play being abstract without a goal and work being more goal oriented, serious and honorable. We used a wide variety of materials. We painted fabric, felt, stabilizers, etc. We heated and melted materials to create more interesting fabrics for our collage.

Below are two photos of my work in progress. The first one was taken at the end of the day of the workshop. The second one was taken a couple of days ago as I continue to make some changes here and there, with more to come.

I plan to add some clouds at the bottom of the arch, and under her feet. The image is from a painting by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, painted in 1854 titled "Jeanne d'Arc at the Coronation  of Charles VII." It's very baroque looking and one can never have too much gold

 and other ornamentation in this style, can they?