Easter Morning

by Jo Reimer

Victorious
Sermon Note by Jo Reimer

Now for the rest of the story...

Pilate gave the order to seal Jesus' tomb and to station a guard there to ensure that no one broke in and stole his body.

After the Sabbath and after Passover two women named Mary, followers of Jesus, went to the place of burial and found the tomb empty, the stone rolled back from the entrance. Angels appeared to them and told them that Jesus had risen from the dead as he had predicted They saw the place where his body had been laid, now empty except for strips of the burial linens.

This is said to be the place in the tomb where Jesus' body was laid.

Later that day and in the weeks following Jesus appeared to many people, walking and eating with them, and they came to understand  the Scriptures, that which was written centuries before, that the Son of God, the Messiah, would come to earth, be crucified and be buried, and rise to live again, paying the penalty for the sinfulness of all who believe.

Although Jesus had told his followers about the events that would happen both before and after his death they did not understand. How can a man die and then live again? But now here was Jesus, walking and talking, in the flesh, and they understood and believed.

Many people witnessed these events as Jesus appeared to individuals and to crowds in the weeks following his death and resurrection.

This is why we celebrate Easter, not as a rite of spring, or a time for new clothes and hunting for colored eggs, but because of God's great sacrifice for all of earth's people.

I hope today will be joyful as you celebrate with family and friends.

Showing My Work

by Jo Reimer

photo by Marnie Fordice

Some artists wait forever and never have an opportunity to show their best work to the public.

Some artists show several times a year, all over the country.

Some have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity... that's me.

Thirty original pieces from my Sermon Note series are hanging in the lobby of my church and will be up a total of 4 months by the time the work comes down on February 20. If you're in the area and want to see it shoot me an email at joreimer at comcast.net and I'll meet you there. It's on Cornell Road in Cedar Mill, Oregon.

In addition to the thirty original pieces ten 3' x 4' prints hang on the big walls. On the 9th of January there was a reception for me with 50 people in attendance. I spoke about how art and faith intersect for me and then the floor was opened to a lively discussion. It's difficult to explain how much this meant to me... to be a conduit for things that God wanted to visualize through me, and to be able to show the work to hundreds of people over such a great length of time. I'm humbled, and amazed, and grateful.

photo by Marnie Fordice

If you're interested in what I had to say I'll be glad to email the text of the presentation to you. Just ask. (email address above)

End of Summer

I figure that you've been wondering where I am and what I've been doing this summer since there've been no changes since August 5. It's a long boring story about gardening, grandkids, berry picking and freezing, experimenting with oil paint, reading and a few parties thrown in for good measure.

As the weeks went by without a serious thought about blogging I finally decided to wait until the end of summer. That's today, so here are a couple of pictures for you.

Romans 5
9x12"
Collage, stamping, stencils, handwriting

Romans 6
9x12"
Collage, stamping, handwriting, painted papers

I've returned to the Sermon Notes series, working through the book of Romans. I finished Romans 6 yesterday and intend to finish all 16 by the end of October. It'll be a push but I will do it. That's just over one a week. Easy! If you want to see the rest of the series they're on Flickr here.

Journal pages
17 x 11"

Above is the first spread in a new art journal. The intention for this journal is to use strips of paper to create a story, probably spread over two pages. I don't regularly work this way but I've been advised by two trustworthy artists to work larger and I'm doing that, on canvas and paper as well as in my journals.

And finally, here are some recent sketches from my small Moleskine journal that I always have with me.

Hiking in Forest Park with grandkids.

At a friend's memorial service

Callas from my garden

Happy Hour with friends

Trust God, a commission

Collage 9" x 12"

This is a piece I made as a commission before I got sick about 2 weeks ago, and is the only art I've done lately. Sometimes when I don't feel well I simply vanish into a series of books , emerging only when I'm on the mend. Even though my sketchbook was beside my chair I never touched it except to move it. But now I'm back and I'll tell you a bit more about the piece.

The clients gave me carte blanche and asked me to use Proverbs 3: 5-6 in KJV. It seems that this is one of the most popular verses in the Bible, and no wonder. In my NIV it reads, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight".  

Normally I don't like to do commissions but this one was a pleasure, though from the time they asked me until the time I actually started working several months elapsed as I thought about what to do. As it turned out there was no advance preparation; I simply started working.

Knowing the colors used in their home I knew I wanted to use yellow and red so I started looking through my painted papers for usable material.  Some of what I used came from sessions with spray paint and stencils. The figure in the lower right quadrant is a stencil I cut to represent myself or 'woman'.

The lower left is a piece of washi paper that I ran through my pleating machine and dyed while still on the gathered thread. I ironed it flat and glued it down and then journaled about the verse on top of the painted paper, deliberately camouflaging portions of the very personal words. The rest of the text is done with individual rubber stamps, like I do with my sermon notes series.

The clients love it and everyone is happy except me... I hate to give it up! But that happens to most artists who are pleased with their work.



Romans 3

This will be hard to read. If anyone wants to see a larger version let me know your email address and I'll send it privately. As usual, this is 9" x 12", and is number 46 in the series.

Running on Empty

There's nothing like enjoying a few days away to gain some perspective on life and how one lives it. Over the last two weeks my husband and I spent the best part of 10 days at the Oregon coast, doing practically nothing. Oh I had plenty to work with, took so many art supplies that I was informed that I'd be rationed the next time we leave home, but I didn't use much of what I had. I managed to sketch quite a bit but nothing memorable was created. I got away from home and turned into a bit of a slug, and now, looking back, I realize that I wasted a good part of my life with nothing to show for it. I don't like that. All my life I've been She Who Makes Things but something has happened lately that I don't like... I'm not producing much. Believe me, that's going to change. And as I write this I realize that perhaps this was a time of rest that I needed, a time to re-charge, a time to shake myself up and start again. Do you ever feel like that? Do you run out of gas, finding yourself running on empty? I'm sure it's a common condition for all us creative types.

Somewhere in that time I did another of my Sermon Notes, one about Romans 2 where Paul writes about being judgmental. The scan isn't the best, nor is the work (see how self judgmental I can be!), but it'll have to do. I work on a 9" X 12" block of 140# watercolor paper and my scanner bed is 8 1/2 by 11 so it cropped off the left side.


It occured to me that you might be interested in my process for creating these pieces and let me say first that they are difficult and take a long time and hours of thought and prayer, but they are the most personally rewarding work I've ever done. A friend commented on how nice it is for me that I've found a niche... yes, a niche, and also a calling, a focus, and even an obsession of sorts. I'm rather scatterbrained about my work, wanting to try every technique, to work in many ways and themes, and most of my life I've sought a focus in my work, something to say and a way to say it, without ever finding what it is that I'm to do that is mine alone. With these Notes I've finally been shown the way I'm to work, at least for now. So I'll keep with it until, well until it's clear that I'm done.

PROCESS

So here's how I approach doing a piece... this is what I will be doing this morning as soon as I publish this post. The first thing I do is pray... mostly it's asking for God's help as I work.

1. gather my handwritten notes from the sermon/sermons. (I'll insert a scan at the end of this post.)
2. read the chapter in the Bible and read my notes
3. do a mind map about all elements... design, composition, color, materials, drawings, techniques, text
4. get out collage papers and play with them as I
5. listen to the sermon on my iPod, downloaded from iTunes.
6. determine which scripture to use, choose a main statement, choose supportive statements.
7. type out all text on the computer.
8. print some of text on Thai Kozo paper and spray with a fixative. Print some onto painted papers.
9. Sometimes I start by journaling directly on the white paper, private words which will be hidden with collage papers.
10. Make the art work (collage or painting).
11. Add the text using my own handwriting/printing, alphabet stamps and stencils, or printed text.
12. Sign the work. Scan it. On the back write about the work with scripture references and date. Post to Flickr and take it to my photographer. Say thank you to the real Creator.

That's what it takes to do the work and the same hold with other artwork I do... lots of planning and thinking and prayer. Sometimes the piece comes together quickly but usually I'm at it for about a week. Often the work is spread out over several weeks, and sometimes it lies fallow for a period of time until I'm ready to begin again.


This stack of paper on the right represents what I take away from church ... printed and handwritten pages of notes that remind me of the message. We don't have preaching, we enjoy listening to an excellent Bible teacher.

The School of Uncertainty

Another piece in my Sermon Note series, this piece is simply watercolor and rubber stamps. I work on a 9" x 12" block of 140# watercolor paper, usually Canson Montval cold press. The block works well because all 4 edges are glued together with the rest of the pages in the block, making a very firm surface which dries absolutely smooth no matter how much water I throw at it or how many layers of papers I glue to it. And the paper takes lots of abuse.

I used paints straight out of the tube because I wanted vibrant color, indicating my ongoing current theme of HOPE. I used cad yellow light, indian yellow, cad red light, cobalt violet, ultramarine blue, phthalo blue and winsor green.

A group women at my church are getting together soon to see how much interest they can generate in teaching homeless women in the community to knit or crochet. I was asked to come up with a logo, a task which is definitely not part of my natural skill set, but I think the result will work. It was definitely a stretch for me. Perhaps it was the "logo" word that put me off; I view designing logos to be part of the job description of high paid illustrators.

HOPE

Sixteen years ago the talk around the kitchen table was all about a man from a town called Hope. That didn’t work out so well when a deficit of character was revealed. Then we placed our hope on a man of character who led us down the path to war… and that didn’t work out well either. Now many Americans link this country’s future to “hope for change”. We’ll see. It could just work if we all pull together to re-claim the honor that was once integral in the USA.

There’s another kind of hope, one that has nothing to do with the hope and expectation I place in the leaders of my county that they will lead with wisdom, integrity, and strength. This other kind of hope is more personal and has to do with faith, this one woman’s hope in the God of the Bible.

Happy New Year to each of you. May this year bring you hope, joy, and peace.

Romans 1

Another in the Sermon Notes series, Romans 1 features a photo I shot in Israel. It represents Paul as he composed his letter to the band of believers living in Rome in AD 57.

Since I had such an appropriate photo this Note is different from the others. The text was printed on thin paper and then glued to the painted paper. The acrylic medium I used gives the paper a translucent quality.

My plan is to do a Note for each of the chapters in Romans, 16 in all. Our pastor is teaching Romans on Sunday morning and he goes verse by verse so this project will stretch over many months; don't expect to see one a week, though I have to play catch up since we're already up to Chapter 4.

Note Cards are available

Sometimes I make things harder than they need to be. I've been selling my Note Cards for awhile but kept stalling going ahead with online sales. Now it's done. I'm offering them in lots of 10 with envelopes through Pay Pal. I can't personally take credit cards so this seems to be the easiest way for you and me. Just click on the Add to Cart button and place your order for 10 or multiples of 10. The inside of the card is blank. These Fine Art cards are suitable for framing in the frame of your choice and because they are Giclee prints they should last years on the wall, out of direct light. Email me with any questions or if you have trouble with your order by clicking on the email link at the top of this column.
Sales are going very well. I've sold nearly 1000 cards and they're being reprinted. I expect these will be most appealing to the community of Jesus-followers who will use them as a way to encourage the recipient or as a gift on a special occasion. The cards titles include Who Are You?, Lowly (humble), Servant, Truthful, Loving, Obedient, Optimistic, Gracious, Forgiving, and Victorious.

Organized chaos

"Jo, do you dare show what your studio looks like after you finished your project?" she said. I took the last of the current series to the photographer/printer today, and after that phone call with my friend I decided to take a few photos to show you what my studio looks like. It's organized chaos. While I'm working I don't bother with keeping my space tidy but once the project is finished or every few weeks, whichever comes first, set my timer for an hour or two and dive in and work as fast as I can for that brief time, sorting, filing, putting things where they belong and making the space look orderly. It doesn't last. I know all about organizing and have many books on the subject. I could teach organizational skills for the studio. I just can't do it consistently... don't see the point.

I have work stations set up and they serve me well. There a long counter along one wall where I work on collages and everything is at hand. With drawers underneath and plenty of counter space its an efficient work area. There's a paper cutter at the end of the counter, a revolving utensil rack for pens/pencils, a knife rack on the wall for scissors, and its handy to the computer and printer. As I stand here working I can look down into the main space of my home.

To the left of this counter on a lower section of counter is where my computer and printer live, along with file drawers and drawers for stencils, alphabet stamps and pads. I can swivel my desk chair and work on a large table where I usually sit to add the text to my collages.

This space is on the second floor and I have lots of big windows that overlook our back garden and the distant mountains.

Here are a couple of views of my stamping setup. I made two book makers' sewing cradles to house my most-used alphabet stamps. It eases the awkwardness that often comes with handling the tiny stamps. People have asked if I do all the text with some kind of stamp. Yes, I do a lot of it with stamps, and no, it isn't difficult but it sure is time-consuming, doing this one at a time. When a section of my own hand lettering works I prefer to do it by hand; otherwise I hand stamp, or stencil the words. Some of the text can be computer generated but I prefer the hand work most of the time.

Then the last area that's important for this work is my big 4 x 8' work table. I had it made years ago by a cabinet maker when I was doing so much work with fabric. It has 4 huge drawers and big open sections where I keep supplies. Here I'm set up for painting. The colorful surface is a large sheet of hardboard on which I work. It has gathered layers and layers of paint from many months of painting with acrylics. Someday I'll probably use it as the background for a large painting, or cut it into several smaller pieces and then start over with another piece of board.

The multi-drawered chest under the window is an antique Butterick pattern cabinet but paint supplies have replaced the patterns which used to crowd the drawers. The top is protected by a sheet of plywood and provides another work surface... or flat storage. It's a good place to lay paintings to dry.

And now as my thanks to you for hanging in for this studio tour, here is the first and the last piece in this sermon notes series.

Gracious and Victorious

I admire artists who do commission work but I've never enjoyed doing commissions and usually refuse... but right now I find myself working on my own commission: to get all 9 of the current pieces in the sermon notes series done by the end of this week so that they can be printed, mounted and hung in my church by Easter. I've finished 8 and have the design ready in my head for the last one.

The big challenge is that the last two are done without my hearing my pastors sermon or having any notes and I'm hoping I get it right. All I have are the titles Obedient and Victorious, a lot of Bible knowledge and a good dictonary, and a bunch of help from God. Victorious" is already done and I am the one feeling a bit of victory. I did the background for this one for Gracious and when it was finished with it's glorious colors I just knew it was perfect for Victorious.



Then I tackled Gracious and went with greens because my son opined that gracious was a green word. This one is painted. I started by painting my 140# watercolor block with a couple of different yellows... acrylic. Then I worked back on top of the dry paint with several green layers but didn't let them dry before overlaying a large leaf stencil and removing color by scrubbing over the stencil with a damp paper towel, removing much of the greens and leaving a hint of yellow leaves. Because of its simplicity of design and topic it needed a quiet layer of words which I stamped out letter by letter.


Yes, it takes a lot of time to do the work but I so enjoy this quiet time for meditation and prayer and I don't mind the work at all. However, I got so caught up in the lettering for the following piece that I didn't realize that my posture was so bad and gave myself a painful neck ache.








And here is Victorious, the Easter centerpiece.

I have one more to do, Obedient, and I'm excited about the composition I've come up with. It hasn't come together yet but I've been playing with papers and colors. I want the dominant color to be purple with splashes of all the other colors I've used, but when I dipped into my compost I couldn't find enough variety of purple paper, nor could I find the right color of purple paint or ink. However, I had an aging stash of Procion Mx dyes that I once used to dye fabric.

Fabric dyes lose their potency after a couple of years, producing less intense colors, but I had nothing to lose except time. So I pulled out the purple, magenta, and a blue and started playing. I stirred the powder into a small amount of water and poured that onto cartridge paper (standard copy paper) and spread it with a brush and squirted it with a spray bottle of water. Great color! As I continued to play I added a bit of magenta for a different hue, then added blue to more purple for a more blue-violet hue. The colors stayed intense when the papers dried, although I'm wondering whether the colors will run when I apply glue. It can't be much different than watercolor, and I'm not concerned about lightfastness.

After the papers dried I ironed them all, hoping that this was sufficient to heat set the color on the paper as on fabric. I know several watercolor artists who paint with dyes with no discernable problems. Tomorrow I'll tackle the papers and do some experimenting with water and glue and see what I have.

At the beach

Dedication is making art even when you're at the beach on a rare sunny week in the dead of winter. I took a small box of compost papers and the bare necessities for making collages... my glue pot, scissors, a stencil a stamp pad and a single set of alphabet stamps... just enough toys to play with but not so much that it felt like work. We were in a condo perched high above the Pacific in Depoe Bay, Oregon where the water is wild and the rocky coast is dangerous, and where sandy beaches are few and far between. We did find a lovely little state park at Fogerty Creek where one parks on the east side of Hwy. 101 and walks west, under the highway and alongside the creek and finally out onto the sand... quite large grains of sand that looks like tiny rocks.


An excursion to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport was a highlight and I went nuts photographing the underwater sea life. I love jelly fish and got some good photos but had more fun in the transparent tunnel where one can walk through the water and experience fish swimming all around. I wasn't successful in photographing leopard shark but I'll remember their patterns for future use in a painting.




















One of the first things I did after we checked into our condo was to take all my papers out of the box and choose the colors that might best serve me for the one piece I wanted to do; I put the rest back into the box for another time. Once I was set up I knew I would dabble now and then and get some work done during our down times. Here's a photo of my dear husband who good-naturedly found a tiny space on the table where he could eat breakfast.
We did some beach walking, lots of driving and sightseeing, ate most meals out (I don't cook on vacation if I can get away with it.), read a lot, and stared at the sea, mesmerized by the rhythm of the waves and enthralled by the sounds of the waves and sea spray. It was LOUD there on the edge of the continent, and so peaceful. At the shore I often feel the a sense of the ocean down deep in my core, calming me, filling me with a quiet joy.

I nibbled at making my art, working first thing in the morning one day, all afternoon another day, and now and again until yesterday it was finished. The art part is simple... 3 main pieces of paper, 2 painted ones and one solid color, but it took quite awhile to settle on the composition and those 3 pieces. I have had the experience of just tossing down some papers and have it work without much effort but that usually doesn't happen, nor did it this week. So here's the result.... Optimistic.

it didn't come easy

Writing for this blog isn’t coming easy for me this week… I’ve composed several paragraphs but nothing is worth publishing so I won’t bother with the writing and simply show you this week’s best work. We’re going to the beach for a few days…listening to the surf pound the rocks will be just what the doctor ordered. I go to the ocean to heal, to rest, to get refreshed by God’s marvelous creation.

What motivates you to work?

What motivates you to work? I’ve come to know that I need deadlines; left to myself I can fritter away a day along with the best of the procrastinators even though I have the best intentions in the world. Look at this week. I usually start on my sermon note piece by Monday afternoon but what with this bad cold, a new baby, and all sorts of other challenges I didn’t really start until Wednesday. I listened to the sermon on CD and took lots of notes, made some lists, and drew a page full of compositions but I didn’t start with the art until Friday. Let me tell you… my Saturday deadline was looming over my head because these pieces take lots of time! I had no wiggle room.

Then I couldn’t find the right shade of blue paper, so I got out my acrylic and inks and stained a bunch of rice paper. When I tested my pen and my stamp pad ink I found that the ink bled on the paper. Now in near panic mode I emailed my calligrapher friend Alesia who knows all about ink and paper, asking how one seals soft papers.

You see, when paper is hand made, like the rice paper I used, it may not have been sized to prevent ink from seeping into the fibers like blotter paper. This was the case with my paper. An online source gave a recipe for cooking gelatin, alum, and water which is boiled and painted onto the paper to seal the surface. I did that. I then made the artwork and then I followed Alesia’s suggestion to paint the paper with 1:1 acrylic matte medium and water. It worked. No bleeding ink.

I’ve put in quite a few really pleasant hours today doing the rubber stamping and stenciling on this piece. It’s my favorite part of this work… it’s a quiet time, and meditative, prayer-like, and I find myself memorizing the lines, asking myself and God all sorts of questions. I get into a rhythm, listen to a bit of music, time flies, and it almost seems like the world pauses to stretch my time to fit the amount of work I have to do. Now it’s finished and I am thinking about the next composition and the next deadline.

Spirals on Green and a new baby

This has been one of those weeks with very little to show for all the time I’ve spent here in my studio. I’ve done lots of painting, even more thinking and postulating, making starts that go nowhere and wondering why it just isn’t working for me right now. Part of it is that I’m battling a cold, and part has to do with waiting for an overdue grandson who arrived today, only a few days late. This is my daughter’s fourth and he’s really a pistol. Surely those long thin fingers will make beautiful marks in this world. After spending today at the hospital, I’m spent, but nowhere near as tired as my lovely daughter. I want to tell the world how proud I am of her and her dear husband… so I’ll tell you and you can tell the world for me.

I did finish another work in my Sermon Notes series… this one is called Servant. It came easier than the one last week, perhaps because I’ve finally made a color plan of sorts for the series. I started with bright colors 3 weeks ago… yellow orange and a blue green, added spring green and blue to the mix the next week, and now this one has mostly blues and very little of the yellow orange. My plan is to continue inching around the color wheel, dropping a color and adding a new one to each piece. All of them will be a vertical format, and all are 9” X 12”. It’s difficult to come up with the basic compositions for these pieces but I just start sketching formats and something eventually clicks. Some are better than others but it really doesn’t matter because these are personal journal entries and not meant for display, though that may happen some day.

One of the papers I used in week 2 was from an envelope lining, spring green printed with black spirals. I ran out of that paper, so while sitting in a meeting last weekend I drew dozens and

dozens of spirals on a piece of bright green handmade paper and used that paper in my work this week. It will appear again. I’ve used spirals in my work for a dozen years. To me the spiral represents life passages. It’s a natural form seen everywhere in the created world we live in and reminds me of the spirit of God within me.

Do-Overs

Making art is always a struggle for me. Most of the time it just doesn't come easy, no matter how good an idea or plan I have. Take this week... I've gone upstairs to my studio every day but have been diverted from paint or collage many times. Now that I'm blogging I find myself spending more time reading other blogs than I used to... so lots of good studio time was used reading. I started a painting which quickly degenerated into an amateurish rendition of a vase of quite ugly flowers. Where did THAT come from? So I ran back to my journal and tried to sort it all out in my mind. I prefer to work in the abstract... not pure non-representational abstract, but abstraction taken from the created world, and yet I return to realism when I don't intend to. Another day I sat down to do another of my sermon notes and what came out was a barn! And not an abstracted barn but a BARN, brown with a red roof! That didn't work at all even though I kept struggling to give it life. I finally gave up and started over.

Early in the week I assembled 3 groups of papers in colorways that pleased me, with the intention to use each group as a separate collage. I chose a group of colors, found a thumbnail composition drawing , and set to work building a collage to be used for a sermon note. It went together in minutes... no struggle this time. Of course then comes the cutting, glueing, drying time, and then adding text.

The completed collage looked so nice that I was afraid to add the text using rubber stamps and handwriting. There was already some photocopied verse on colored papers that was part of the collage, but it felt a bit scary as I was poised, inked stamp in hand, ready to put the first black mark on the work. Yikes. But it worked out just fine... clear and definitely with a hand-done look. Then I needed to test several pens on similar papers to be sure that I chose ink that wouldn't bleed and line width that was right for the piece. It all came together, though not without mistake. It's done; this one is finished, and I am satisfied with my work for the week.

Who Are You?

When I began this blog my intention was to post once or twice each week and show you some of my weeks worth of work. I'm finding that's easier said than done. I've been IN the studio, working quite often, but most of the results aren't what I want to show the world, but I'll show you a couple of works.

Blue Door is more realistic than I usually paint but I had a photo I liked and gave it a try. I like doing little watercolors like this in my sketchbooks or journals but as an acrylic painting it just doesn't work for me. I'd like to be more abstract but this is what came out that day. Mother would like it! I didn't; so I quit trying and we took off for a couple of vacation days the beach where I played with my collage papers and had some fun. I turned one of the collages into an illustration that fits into a continuing series which I call Sermon Notes. Here's Who Are You?

I usually take copious notes during the sermon on Sunday mornings because our pastors' messages often speak directly to my heart. Some time back I decided to turn these notes into art. This is number 32. All are done on a 9" X 12" 140# block of smooth watercolor paper. I use a block for a substrate for this series because it stays nice and tight while I add the layers of paper, glue, paint,ink, stenciling, stamps, and lettering. Otherwise a loose sheet of paper would buckle with the glue and water and because of the tension exerted by the papers as they dry. When I cut the finished piece off the block my rough edges are preserved and the finished piece is flat. Of course this means that I had to buy several blocks so that I can have more than one collage going at once. That's just for the Sermon Notes; other times I work on stretched canvas, board, or heavier watercolor paper.

I prepare collage papers ahead of time, often during dry spells when I feel uninspired to work on a specific project, or in the evening when my energy lags, or even when I'm working in a room with other people and can't concentrate on making art. I use all sorts of paper for collage: art tissue, text-weight paper, various washi (Japanese rice paper), unwaxed sandwich paper, or other relatively thin papers. Color is added to the paper in many forms: fabric dye and paint, acrylic paint for crafts and artist grade, watercolor, ink, pastels, watercolor crayons and pencils, and anything else that has color.

I keep my papers in drawers and in portable tubs and refer to them as my Compost. I continually stir the pile of papers, tear them into pieces, and generally keep them well mixed because the juxtapositioning of color against color often suggests a new direction and feeds the growth of my work.

My favorite adhesive is acrylic medium mixed with PVA applied with a plastic palette knife. The finished work gets a finish coat of acrylic medium and acrylic varnish.