The New Year Begins...

with what I call a "reclamation project".  Happy 2020, everyone--it's a bright and shiny new year, a new decade, but some things remain constant.  For me, this is the time of year that I begin to create what's been rolling around my head design-wise while I've been doing other things (like recovering from shoulder surgery, resuming teaching, enjoying the holidays, etc.).  This year, I will add co-producing a mixed media retreat to my list of artful endeavors: the Your Creative Connection Seaside Sessions begin in March.  If you're interested in learning more about this women-centered event, all the details are here.  I will be teaching a variety of mixed media techniques at the retreat, which brings me to the subject of this post:  the reclamation project.

I began with a great deal on 12"x12" canvases at AC Moore (because they're going out of business, to my horror) and, thinking they'd make a great substrate for my retreat sessions, I set out to create....well, I wasn't quite sure what, but plunged in anyway (usually a mistake for me, given that I usually have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to do when I begin--what it ends up being is often a bit of a surprise, but I've learned to ride that wave, but I digress).  Here's how it started:

I added a page of text from a book on the mythology

of world cultures, then a wash of Indian Yellow Hue.

Next, I added some fluid acrylic Pyrrole Red on

both sides of the text.  So far, so good.

Thinking that I needed to tone down some of 

that red (a color I find difficult to work with as

a major feature), I used a stencil with opaque 

Burnt Umber.  'Not sure why I chose that

awkward positioning....

All seemed back on track when I added this

gessoed stencil in the upper left corner.  But, I was

still a bit unsure about how it would all work

together at this stage.

There was a stage before this one, where I added the 

blue surrounding the sunburst, and painted

the rays metallic copper.  This turned out to be

the point at which I realized I had NO idea where

the piece was going (that's white molding paste

added in an attempt to salvage and make sense of

the awkward composition).  It. Did. Not. Work.

And so, after much scraping, peeling, and sanding, this is 

the same canvas, gessoed, tissue papered, and ready for a new,
 more successful (I hope) composition.  

Where will it end up?  I'm still not certain, but I have some ideas...I'll document them and let you know...Stay tuned.  Until next time,