New Work: Whirligig

Whirligig
14" x 18" painted papers collage

It's wonderful to get compliments and comments on your work. It's important though not to be overly confident in the wrong way. Just because you have enjoyed success in the past doesn't automatically mean that you will enjoy that same success in the future. Having faith though in your ability to do something is a different discussion. In my book, having that kind of faith is totally necessary. It doesn't guarantee success but it will help you to search for answers to solutions knowing that you likely will be able to find them. You can proceed knowing that you are likely to finish one way or the other.

Such was the case with the piece above. I came up with some solutions that I thought were pretty solid. The moves I was making seemed good. At the end though, I was searching for the last couple of shapes and colors that would tie the piece together and make it cohesive. There were several areas that were just too busy and that made other areas look too stark. The answer, as I found out (again), was not to add more shapes to balance out the piece but to remove some shapes and then assess the situation. Once I did that, I had room to breathe and then the next and final moves became more obvious. Removing some pieces that I was super in love with helped me to better evaluate things. You have to be willing to destroy a bit in order to gain. 

These collage pieces are such a challenge for me. What do I want them to be? How can they be taken seriously? What kinds of design ideas guide me while I am making them? The first two questions are maybe not answerable. The third question though is one that I can somewhat address. I know that for a long time now, several years at least, I have been refining my ideas regarding some design "principles". They are the following: repetition, variance, and proportion. I look for ways to repeat and vary shapes and to figure how much of that is needed. I also try to apply those ideas to color, value and chroma. It's sounds boring and academic but to me it's like having a limitless toolbox. 

Each time I make a piece I work with those above ideas in some way. They guide me and help me come up with solutions. I usually too have some sort of "ah ha" moment of clarity when I figure out something that I am after. This time I was able to really hone in on what I think of as "surface tension" within the picture plane. I kind of envision a piece of strong and stout netting that is pulled taut. All of the squares within the netting are pulled equally, all sides are pulled strongly and no one part of the net is weaker than the other. (It's not the scientific definition of what surface tension is but more of a visual.) There is an overall cohesiveness of the piece and an equality of shape, line and color. Not one element is more important than another. This is a tall order to fill but just to verbalize it (or write about it) is critical for me.

With all of that in mind this piece is done and I am happy. Today is kind of a paperwork sort of day in my studio but I hope to start a new piece next week at some point. In the meantime, Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms out there. I hope the day is going well.

Thanks for reading and commenting,

Libby