The Helix Tango was a quilt I completed in 2008. It was my first wholecloth piece that was inspired by my love of the tango. My vision for The Helix Tango is "life, love, and passion" - actually what the Tango dance embodies.
First, I started by researching some images of dancers doing the Tango. I traced the basic shapes to arrive at the set of drawings below.
Next, I needed to work on the background for the quilt. I wanted to express movement in the background to match the intertwined moves of the tango dance. The rungs of DNA represent the "life" embodied in the quilt. The DNA rungs twist in the same way that the dancers do when performing the moves of the tango. I thought this representation of the tango movement was perfect.
The next task was to determine the background for the quilt. I knew from the beginning that I needed to use red. This color fully embodies the theme of life, love and passion. I made the background mottled red to resemble the movement of blood in the body.
The actual quilt background fabric had the same movement but a deeper red color. I love the deeper red better than the "orange-y" red that I sketched out in Photoshop. I used black paint to outline the dancers. Then, I used gold printer's ink by Speedball to paint the chromosomes. This made the chromosomes look bright and metallic. So, when you look at this quilt from a distance, the chromosomes are the first elements that you see. Then, as you come up on the quilt, you see all the wonderment that goes on.
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