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Showing posts from January, 2013
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It's no secret that I love texture, and lots of it... combining scraps of every conceivable tissue, corrugated , patterned and printed pape r with media, fabric, metal and other bits that are within arm's reach, then diving into color... I can do this all d ay and it never feels repetitive, each piece a fresh blank board waiting to be t ransformed. Sometimes I end up with a great beginning . And, since I don 't usually have a finished image in mind when I start, I win d up staring at the background with no clue what to do next. I've gotten through this a s many time s as I've finished art that I mostly love, but this bridge place, the water rushing beneath, the sky - a nd path - dense with fog that filter s through my brain is very frustrating . Yes, I need an image, found objects, a theme or emotion to express...   Like most m ixed-media artists, I've read my share of books on process, the muse, letti ng creat

Can't have too many junk boxes!

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Most of my pre-holiday time was spent re-purposing shoe boxes, a project that turned out to be as fun as it is ecological. Your counters are probably clean and visible, free and clear of the stuff that can't be thrown out - yet - but doesn't have a home. You probably don't deal with piles of stuff, photos, coupons, receipts and papers that need to be sorted like I do. So, since our junk drawer was full I decided this would be a convenient and artistic solution. A counter-top junk box.  I collaged the box lid with generous layers of papers and other scraps, wholey paper of course, and then painted on a coat of clear Gesso; I haven't been using it long but have fallen in love with it! Along with stabilizing the cardboard it also lets some of the papers and colors show through. Then it became like any other canvas and I had a blast, deciding on a centerpiece and trim to complete the look. I did, however, leave the