For today it's finished, anyhow. I have some doubts about a section of it which I may change, but I figured I would share my thoughts. I need to rest on it and then make decisions.
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| She hitched a silver sled to the sky |
First the background trees were embroidered with silver thread. The was an excellent effect. I will use it again...It's a bit tedious! Since I felt like I was painting texture in with thread, I kept having to go back over and over to perfect it.
The girl and sled were next. I really struggled with her. I did about 6 heads on a separate piece of paper with watercolor and then chose the best of the crowd. I have an aversion to doing faces, so even getting one I could use felt like an achievement. I tried blowing her up on a couple of laser prints because I wanted a glossy texture on her, to contrast nicely with the matte watercolor paper in the background. But it looked weird and I ended up going with the original. Scary! I had to touch her up on the white cut edges so she actually stood out from the background more, and I held my breath like I did when I played the flute in school. Damn, it was not the time for an ink blob!
Struggling all the way, like a beginner-clutzy and yet somewhat liberated. I built her body with vintage lace scrap and greeting card foils. I have a love for garter belts and I have wanted to use these little groovy pieces of hardware again. It sure looked like sled hardware to me.
Next, the tree in the background grew some irridescent sequins hanging like large winter ice globes and shining just the right kind of color scheme I was looking for. Karmic collage. Cool.
I attached a piece of corrugated cardboard to the back of her upper body/head.. This makes her appear to stand out from the paper. The scan is lame for showing this strange effect and the shadow that occurs as you look at this piece from an angle. Sweet.
The part I am not too sure about are the 4 wires that lead from the garter to the tree....I am not sure if you get the idea that she is harnessing energy upwards....It almost looks like she hitched some balloons. I can remove these wires. I thought about having her sled driven by a rusty fox. ...I am trying to force myself to stick to my original mental idea rather than changing my idea for the sake of the art. But that part disturbs me. I may have to ....????
This piece was challenging as hell since I am out of my comfort zone. And rusty to boot!
This piece also feels critical for me. When constrained with less to work with, I chose to build up off the paper. I am loving the idea. I am infatuated with it. The natural progression is for me to do some of my Mohawk valley pieces in this 3d fashion. It seems ideal for buildings to build UP out of the paper, like a popup.
Pressing on in my silver sled....
2 comments:
I love the garter belt attachment, super! I also think the stitching is wonderful. Alot of the other things you were talking about is hard to see on the computer, for me anyway, but when I first saw this piece I focused on her flying up and away on her sled. Then I saw the garter and noticed the sparkly tree. I didn't even notice the wires were hooked to the trees until you mentioned them. If that bothers you I think I would change it. I hate when I don't fix something that bothers me because then I am never truely happy with it no matter how much anyone else is. I had an idea..you could bend the wires around to mimic the wind stencil. Just a thought. Good work.
Connie
PS: I don't know what it is about this blog that makes me so talkative..but I like it :)
hahaha.i don't know what it is either, ut i like it too!
The wires are subtle and that's to their advantage. I just didn't want them to look like strings attached to the sequins, making me think of balloons.
Also, it's more like she's hitching it up to the sky, not necessarily up to the tree. That's the disconnect i guess, the fact that there isn't a wire going straight up to the sky.
I thought about adding watercolor swishes to mimic this idea...maybe even a transition of watercolor, to paper, to wire. ??
i find it interesting that the weirder the object i use, the better the response. I was hesitant but unwavering about that garter belt. She hitched up that sled just like we would hitch up some old fashioned panty hose!
::)
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