Beaver Moon Miracle

The rest from the collage studio table has created The Miracle. The very thing I have been waiting for! A CHANGE...
It was bound to happen. I have been wanting to break out of my creative mold for awhile now, and I think that finally the glass has shattered. No longer can I put the pieces back together.

I decided to warm up my collage skills with a simple piece about the Beaver Moon...which is coming up on Nov. 10. I researched the term and the meaning behind it and I have an idea. I did a watercolor on 140 lb. paper for the base. But as I started to add objects, I found that they were heavy. REALLY heavy. I took them off. I struggled and put them back on. I took them off again. ON again. This process exhausted me and I quit and came back. The next day I told myself that if I wanted to deal with these heavy materials, such as fur and metal...I would need to move to a heavier base. Like a dresser drawer (my latest substrate obsession).

I ferret out a nice one from my husband's vast collection of furniture parts and paint a background. I decide in this process that I am going to do 2 works! One shall be flat. Old style. Like I used to do it. For me, so I can satisfy the urge that I have to go back....I can be Free and do what I want. This is for my enjoyment. For selfish ME.  The second piece in the drawer would be the new stuff, the heavy... I lay them out.

Art #2 in the drawer is just a base coat of acrylic, no actual scenery. I am relying on my digital photo to carry it. (It seems like cheating somehow, but the photo is mine so relax Julie) The fur, parts of vintage jewelry and hats, netting, it all will rest nicely on this piece.

It's that Art #1 that is troubling me. I struggled like crazy to place the first few objects on it and ended up removing them. I tried again, with another set of paper pieces, going in another direction. Nope. It just is not going anywhere. It's collage future appears to be dead. So far, this piece is a watercolor. And nothing more.

And there is the change!! I refuse to work on it if I have to go backwards. I quit. Somewhere in there the old went into a cocoon, and something new has emerged. The new work wants to have a lot more depth. It wants to mix paper with milkweed pods and vintage jewelry parts and be heavy. It doesn't feel "pure paper" anymore. It isn't just collage, it's collage plus something else.

Along with the urge to combine newer and heavier materials I also want to build up and off the paper. I can't get past it. To sum this all up, I am working on much more intense pieces. They require planning. And electrical engineering! These works are evolving and they are taking so long. This part I am not liking...and I told myself to go Julie and express that time frustration thing on Art #1, but so far, that canvas remains cold and alone. While the Beaver Moon begins to rise....

Note to you and me> I need to take some photos of the process here, so this blog has something visual going on. All these words make me nervous.