New Work: Party Hat

Party Hat
12" x 12" painted paper collage on MDF board

In between pieces, there is work to do! Prepping paper to be gessoed and painted is always an action item and painting new papers to use is also on the list. I have been doing both things but in the meantime, I made a small piece, shown above, from leftover shapes sitting on my work table. It came together quickly and fairly easily which is nice. It's good to have several positive experiences in a row when it comes to making these collages. Building a kind of momentum is always welcomed when working.

I am noticing a difference in the outcome of these pieces. Some are more structured than others, almost like they are being designed on a kind of grid. Only a few of the pieces I have done so far this year have been more "unstructured", meaning that I use the shapes I have at hand and don't worry too much about placement. They almost have more of a circular or organic quality to them. It's hard for me to describe and I can't intentionally duplicate this second way of working. That tells me that there is something that I am doing that I am not aware of yet. I only know that when I start a piece I can tell right away if I will get something that is normal for me or something that is a little different. My thought process on color and shape and line are the same but there is definitely another factor in play that I have not yet identified. This brings me to my final point.

Is there anyone out there reading that likes taking classes? I admit that I have only taken two before and they were drawing classes. I have watched instructional videos, read plenty of books, and tried to emulate different styles while incorporating other people's ideas into my way of working. I am asking because I very nearly bought a book the other day on drawing imaginary animals and characters. The idea is to keep your eyes open for everyday clusters of objects/marks/images that can be turned into figures. It looked fun but kind of dangerous. I am very hesitant to take in new information at this point. It's taken me such a long time to hear a little tiny voice in my head telling me what to do with my art. I don't want to turn a deaf ear to that voice while I am listening to someone else tell me what to do. Anyway, I am curious to know if anyone else has had this experience or something similar to it that they want to tell me about.

Alright, thanks for reading. Leave a comment or shoot me an email.

libbyfife@ymail.com

Libby