This piece is simple titled A*R*T and it was my first try at Mixed Media. Oh my goodness, I HAD SO MUCH FUN! (And yes, I know all caps means I'm yelling... BECAUSE I AM!).
It all started one evening after work when I met my husband at one of our favorite, little hangouts; a relaxed wine bar downtown. His co-worker and good friend was also there and we shared a bottle of cabernet savignon, a cheese platter and a wonderful time. I do not remember how the dialogue got started, but soon my husband was being shamed into remodeling an unused corner of our basement into a craft-room for me. As the evening festivities continued, the description mutated into Art Studio - what can I say, wine was consumed.
Short story shorter, that weekend my husband started gutting the abandoned corner of the basement, carving a little niche into his man cave for me!
Insert HUGE SHOUT OUT to Wayne (the aforementioned friend of my husband) here!
It is huge undertaking and it will take a long time as my husband can only work on it on the weekends. And that's ok, I have my kitchen after all! Good things come to those who wait.
So, I decided to create a mixed media canvas to hang in my someday creative studio. I wanted to use two types of components: supplies from my forays from past hobbies and supplies from the basement corner where my future wonderland will be. After applying black gesso and texture paste, I started building dimension by adhering beads, gears, paint brushes, an old tube of oil paint, paper, dry wall tape, copper wire and an old bent nail my husband plucked from a ceiling beam in the basement corner. On the middle panel, I included an old phano pencil I found in a box of my father's things.
Below are the raw beginnings. My husband had called me from his work to see if we had dinner plans...Ummm, "I am painting a wall hanging," I replied, skirting his 'cooking dinner' hint. That distracted him as he was pleased to hear that all of his hard labor in the dark recesses of the cellar/future art emporium were/are not in vain. "Take a picture and text it to me," he said enthusiastically. So I texted the photo of the two panels pictured below. His reply, "...Anyway, do we have dinner plans."
Clearly, he doesn't see my vision...
The not-so-pretty early stages of the A and R panels.
After another coat of black gesso, I started playing with acrylic paint, inks and powdered pigments. When I was little, my grandfather would critique my coloring book; pointing out all the places where I 'went out of the lines'. So here I am, many years later, and boy oh boy am I going out of the lines! :)
I would like to enter my project A*R*T into the Mixed Media Main Challenge for June in the Dimension category - MMMC #23.
