promises

Thank you Julie FFB and  Lechatquitousse (the cat who coughs)! Julie's been doing a series on other artists and the one from May 8th featuring Carol Mahy-Merveille has made my week! Carol does a step-by-step of her mixed media piece and it lit such a fire in me that I've spent the entire afternoon rolling back and forth in my studio between the computer and my work table, creating my own version by following her steps one by one. 

I took a bunch of process photos but then like a total space cadet, I cleared out the photos on my phone in an idiotic fit of electronic housecleaning and deleted them all. When I read about other people doing stuff like that, I smugly shake my head at their carelessness, thinking how glad I am that I'll never do something that dumb. Well, that hubris has come back to bite me square on the hiney with very sharp teeth. Consequently, I have only the finished product to show you. Beware the smugness! <sigh> But it's a glorious finished product that I am just thrilled to death with.

One of my biggest hurdles in producing the kind of art I so admire is getting enough (paint, layers, lace, elements, etc) onto the piece. I am by nature a cheapskate, unwilling to use a lot when just a little will do. However, I love the depth that only tons of layers will get you, and I have finally achieved that look, thanks to Carol's marvelous tutorial. 

I started with a blank 8x10" canvas panel. Then I proceeded to do exactly what she does in the post - stamps and ink, gesso, tissue paper, ink, stencil, etc, right on down the page. I don't have some of the products she used, but I just grabbed the closest thing I had and kept going. Once the background was done, I let it dry for a while before working on the collage part. I have a bunch of old photos and poked thru them until I found one that grabbed me, added various bits from my shoe box of old paper stuff and played with arrangement until I liked it, then glued it down.

 

The metal items on the right came from my stash of junk I've collected over the years. The little numbers metal  tag is a key code from a motorcycle. I hung it and the key from an old chain using hook and eye closure parts.

The word "promises" was sewn on my machine, a test run for a different project that I ended up not using. It was still laying on my table, along with everything else from the last five projects I've done, and with a little dye work, it was perfect. And different. Sewn words aren't something I've seen, so if it gets real popular, remember I was one of the first LOL!

One of my favorite parts of this is the way the bits of tissue paper took the ink. You can see one in the upper center of the piece, with the crinkles picking up the turquoise ink. I quite like the metal bits too. I can see several more of these in my future. Loved the process, and now that I've done one, it's loosened me up a bit to where I'll try some ideas of my own on the next one.