New Quilt

I have finished the quilt I have been showing on my blog. My goals were to work with a white background, instead of black my normal choice, and to create a portrait using a new technique. I usually layer fabric on top of each other to get the look of shading and highlighting. This time I went with a "mosaic" look. I wanted to use brights so I picked warm tones for the hair and cool tones for the face. I wanted the figure offcentered as well. This left me with a large white background area to fill because it wasn't balanced. I chose to do a thread painted figure behind the woman. I wanted it noticeable yet not to overpower the woman. I have done minimal embellishing because I think it doesn't need anymore. I probably will sew beads or french knots on the binding edge. When I showed the finished quilt to my boyfriend, who is an artist, he freaked out. "It doesn't look like your normal work!" He was confused by the modernness of the woman in the quilt. "It was way out there" and he didn't really like it as well as my other work. So that got me thinking about "is that what art does-provote emotions-good or bad?" I then chickened out of show and tell at my quilt guild meeting last evening. The women are traditional quilters for the most part and I wasn't sure if I was ready for the same reaction as my boyfriend. Maybe art can make people angry or sad not just happy.