Heritage

The continuing theme for me currently is family history, or my heritage (if you read regularly this blog, you are probably sick of it already). I was working with the key symbol for awhile and altho I have not created any keys in my artwork in a couple of weeks, I do believe the idea has carried over. I seem to be satisfied with making elaborate headdresses for my characters. This piece, called Diana, is an example of this idea transfer. To put a key on this piece would have been redundant, as she is wearing the most elaborate of hats.
I have been working on watercolors lately. I miss pushing and pulling the pigments, so I have challenged myself to paint more backgrounds if at all possible. This watercolor was based on the photo I took (above) on my way home from college a few weeks ago. My painting lacks the depth and breadth of color in the pic, but I liked the pastel sky and decided to use it for another heritage collage.

This watercolor only has 2 layers of paint. I want to try another where I go 13 layers. If only I could concentrate that long! HA! This piece seems a bit empty for my work, but I am working towards a better balance of painting and collage. It's hard to know exactly when I am done.

The second piece for this week was one that went together rather quickly. The elements sat together on the table for a few days and it didn't take too much to solve the composition. It has a vastly different look than the past 10 works.

No keys. No hats.
This piece has a pic of my grandma as a young woman. I cannot explain the effect this has on my work! Having grandma staring back at me as I cut and paste, it's unnerving. It also makes me try harder. Grandma was my Lithuanian relative, and she wrote tidbits of family history on notebooks and scraps all over her house. She married a norwegian man, my Grandpa Frank. The embroidery is Lithuanian along with the little building in the left. THe middle building, however, is a Norwegian church. She holds it in her hand. This artwork symbolizes her accepting Grandpa's Norwegian heritage as her own. This piece is probably the most serious work in this series.


If that last piece went together quickly, this final piece of the weekend--was crazy. I swear it went together by itself. The pieces rose up off the floor and out of the boxes and landed on the table. It felt that correct. I felt guided, as tho someone else was doing the work. This woman is not a relative of mine. She was a friend of my Grandma from the old country. She is in a few pics, so they must have been close friends. I named her Zemyna, which stands for the Lithuanian earth goddess. I think the bird, the snowy forest, it all reminded me of an earth mother.


This project will probably now take a back seat to holiday fodder. I am broke this year, with my car taking most of my money for a myriad of annoying maintenance type repairs. I plan to make gifts this year, to try to help my wallet out.