mixed media collage on 8x10 canvas panel

I had the idea for this piece in my head since for a few weeks before I sat down and made it. I had the wings, the window and the fish. Then I went looking and found the girl and the dandelion blossom. The window is a photograph I took last fall printed on regular ink jet printer paper. I like incorporating prints of my photographs into my art because I feel like it adds another dimension of myself to the piece. I did the background with acrylics, twinkling h20’s, pearls and alcohol inks and gesso, then collaged in the pieces and overstamped some script.

I’m really pleased with the way this one finished up, more so every time that I look at it. I’ve already had thoughts of keeping it for myself and have even imagined her gracing my bedroom wall - which means I’ll probably end up doing just that. Why is it that we artists’ find it so hard to let our work go?

Tree Man started as a photo I took recently, then evolved into a 6×8 canvas panel. I made an ink jet print of the photo and gesso’ed it onto a canvas panel I had already painted a background on. I also used acrylics, inks and stamping to complete the piece. This piece went together really fast - a few hours saw it’s completion.

But there’s a story behind this piece (isn’t there always?).

I had painted the black and white background on the canvas panel months ago and then had no idea what to do next with it, so it just sat and waited. Then a week ago I got myself out for a camera walkabout. It was very gray and foggy that morning before the sun broke through, and I took a bunch of pictures of a foggy lake. One of them, by accident, came up turned the wrong way when I loaded it into my photo editor. I was struck by the haunting quality of that shot because it looked like a bearded man who’d sprouted tree branch wings. Hence the name “Tree Man” sprang to mind.

Then last night when I was looking through some of my art papers and unfinished works, I came across the unfinished b&w panel, and inspiration gave birth the idea of collaging the photo onto the panel. So, today I sat down without a definite plan or idea of what I wanted to do but the piece seemed to finish itself as I sat and played.

I love it when a piece comes together this way - in such a serendipitous fashion. It’s one of the things I love about making art. I find that when I sit down to create, my art has a way of creating itself - as if it were using me to channel itself. I don’t know how else to explain it. It just is.

Secrets Buried In Time (A Work In Progress)

This is a 6x8 canvas panel I started some months ago but haven't yet finished. I 'm not quite sure what I want to do with this piece next, but I feel I need to bring out more of the collaged and stamped objects. Right now, it feels too soft focus to me. The objects don't pop. I also want to incorporate more ideas into the theme of what I already have - if that makes any sense - to clarify what the work is saying.

My artwork is such an intuitive process that I find it difficult sometimes to verbalize and communicate about a piece I'm working on, or have finished. I wonder if any other artists feel the same way, or if it's just me. I think my lack of formal training hinders me in this respect, as I lack the formal art-speak of technique. I make what I feel - and that's usually quite a lot! I've been blessed with a huge creative imagination that has, at times (and mostly when I was younger) gotten me into all sorts of trouble. But in retrospect, that only made more fodder for the creative flame that burns within.

Well, well, well...

By sheer dumb luck I came across a weblog named Artwords (which I've now added to the sidebar) and Lo! and Behold! there it was - a photo of some book markers I made recently for a swap at ATCards.com. Wow, I am so jazzed! If you want to take a look-see

here they are