When Push Comes to Shove....

...... I can do whatever it takes…. 

….and does it ever feel good to finish the hard thing, which this time was making the artwork for a show at The Village Gallery in March. 

I did the serious planning and a bit of work in December and as soon as the holidays were behind me I geared up, and yesterday I was able to take the finished work to be photographed. Whew!  Twelve rather complex collages in 6 weeks is a personal record.

I’m proud of the work I’ve done and am excited to see it all hanging.  I hope you who live in the area will come see the show between March 3 and 30, 2019. Maybe you’ll find something that’s just right for a wall in your own home.

 

"ORANGE WITH BLUE AND GREEN"   $375

You know I love color and have had extensive training in using color. Having taught the standard color wheel I know that many people find it difficult to actually use the color wheel when making their art. So… I decided to make twelve 12” x 12” collage paintings with each one based on one of the colors in the color wheel to show you how it might be done. I made the primary-color pieces first, complemented with black and white. Then I made the secondary and tertiary versions, some accented with its complement (opposite color on the color wheel) or with its split complement. The results are an interesting grouping.

Here's a peek at my process for "Purple":

Let me tell you.... It took lots of head-scratching to decide what I think of as purple. Does it lean toward blue or toward red? Is it violet, periwinkle, blueberry.  Oh my. I pulled out my drawer of purple painted papers and chose a variety of papers to audition for this piece.  

More head-scratching let me to narrowing down the selection to these pieces to use as the first layers. This is what it looked like laid out and photographed as a 12" square-ish shape.

"PURPLE"   $375

More decisions, more auditioning, more papers, some marks and stenciling led me to this this finished work. 

You're welcome to copy the following list of my processes if it will help you in your own art making.

COLLAGE PROCESS

• Build the background with paper and paint
• Add images, photographs, marks, stencils and stamps
• Seal with gloss medium
• Add photo transfers, if desired.
• Make more marks. Add glazes.
• Seal again with gloss medium, or with matte medium if you prefer a matte surface.
• Photograph.
• Finish the edges of the cradle, if using.
• Frame the work.
• Sign on the front and on the back
• Add to your inventory, with pricing.

My 40 Day Challenge

 A couple of months ago I hatched the idea to do a 40 Day Challenge, on my own, inside an 8" square book I created from 2 sheets of a heavyweight drawing paper.

THE CHALLENGE: Every day for 40 days make marks on one page using black ink, crayon, graphite, thread, paper.  I began with a great deal of enthusiasm but withing a week I realized that my erratic schedule didn't give me time to do the work every single day... so I flexed and agreed with myself that doing a page for 5 of the 7 weekdays was enough.  I stuck to it and made 40 pages.

CONCLUSION: I won't limit myself this way again. Instead of being a motivation to visit the page I sometimes dreaded doing the work. It became a chore.

ART SHOULD BE FUN. FULFILLING. PLAY. MEDITATION. 

Nevertheless, I'm glad I did it. I have a lovely book chock full of markmaking ideas that I will carry forward in my paintings, drawings, and collage. For that I'm grateful.

The process I like best is what I call Extended Photographs.  I printed out one of my own photographs in grayscale, in about half the size of the book page, and glued it securely. Using ink or graphite I drew beyond the edge of the photo, creating an imaginary landscape which didn't appear in the photo.  In this first one I used a Q-tip dipped in ink as well as a dip pen.