Friday, September 11, 2009

Artist at Play

I love deadlines and art shows with themes. They give me inspiration and motivation. All year I've been working toward these goals and it's been great, but it's given me little time to play. Now I have no deadlines in front of me or specific themes to shape my pieces. Now I can experiment with new materials and fresh ideas. Playing for an artist is just as important as working.

One of the things I've not been able to do is play with my scraps. Every piece of paper that I tear or cut to use in my collages has come from a larger piece of paper. What's not used in an art piece goes into my scrap bin; and my scrap bin has gotten h
uge!I like to reuse my scraps and from them create whole new sheets of paper from which to cut shapes to use in new pieces. The other night I picked up a couple 6x8 sheets of dark green unryu paper (a thin rice paper with swirling fibers typically made in Thailand). I laid the papers on my work surface and then pored through my scraps to find suitable colors which the dark green would complement.After identifying these scraps I used soft gel medium to glue these pieces down in a semi-random pattern. The dragonfly and the butterfly pieces you see were in my scrap bin as well. I'd cut them for another project, but then discarded them when they just didn't work.When the sheets are dry, I'll cut shapes from them to use in future art pieces; most likely circles. I have an affinity for circles. These two sheets of scraps hardly made a dent in my bin. And of course, when I cut shapes from them, I'll have even more scraps. It's never ending!

4 comments:

Susan Williamson said...

You almost don't need to make anything out of yours scraps. They look they found art to me. P.S. I know what you mean about deadlines. It really pushes you to go forward.

Susan Williamson said...

Just reread my comment--I should have done this in the first place! What I meant to say was that your scraps LOOK LIKE found art to me!

Anonymous said...

Geez...had I known that I could comment like this, i would have started earlier..:) I love the way you blog along with your art. It makes it fascinating and feels like we are part of the process! :)

OH yeah! Tote bag, right?

D. Nixon

Anonymous said...

Really? You like deadlines? In my life, they definitely have their place, but I can't actually say I LIKE them.