New Work: Up and Down

Up and Down
image size 9" x 12"-acrylic

Making art is nothing if not personal. From the subject matter, to the materials that an artist uses, to the way the artist works, everything is grist for the mill of individuality.

While on vacation recently, I tried hard to relax. For a stay at home artist/housewife type,I guess I can be rather tense. Maybe it is because I am alone so much with my thoughts, I don't actually have any distractions to push the ideas and feelings away. That's both good and bad. Sometimes I am tense for sure but sometimes the creativity flows from having that kind of mental space. In any case, while sitting and thinking, I had a mental picture of two arms together, pushing down on something. That something was a cluster of repetitive, negative thoughts. I immediately drew a little sketch of what I thought that would look like. (I am a literal minded person as you can see form the above piece!) I chose colors based on their symbolic interpretations. Green for life, regeneration and renewal. Blue for wisdom and creativity. Magenta, I learned, has to do with transformation. Red of course makes me think of anger and fire and heat. The yellow circle has to do with balance (for me) in relationship to the blue colors. It also seems like a bright spot in the topmost portion of the picture plane, implying in my mind that things are on the way up and not down.

I tried some new things for this piece too. Those two strips of red and pink at the bottom are actually construction paper. Art is about emotions sometimes but it is also a great problem solving exercise! I love straight lines and rectilinear forms. They are a p.i.a to manage however. Lot of taping involved. I used construction paper to make more precise lines, glued those down and then put paint over them. It's very exciting too because I think this procedure solves some technical things that have been plaguing me, chiefly the taping and straight line situation. 

So, on to the next thing. I have some sketches going from our time at Big Chico creek. I also will be trying some paper pulp painting so stay tuned for that! Thanks for reading and commenting.

Libby