Time to Throw in the Towel....really.

or in this case, throw out the block of wood. I am at an impasse that has no forward movement with this one. I had set it aside for quite some time, and kept generating ideas to change what I had done (that wasn't gelling) as well as new elements to incorporate (which weren't gelling).
Something I recently did to it  was to scribble some wax onto various areas beneath the tree canopy, and go for a crayon resist look. My thought was ....rain...storm...darkness, etc....that would show up in the background once I had applied  blackish wash, and hopefully bring together some of the elements in the bottom section of the piece. I'm still really liking the tree canopy, so I didn't want to disturb that, but the mermaid was not coming along-regardless of whether I tried to pencil or paint her in. A last ditch effort was made to actually cover her up- and I got allot of smeary stuff going on instead. Lastly, the black tint wash was applied....which did nothing but make this piece look like  it was left out in the rain, and then dumped in a puddle.

Too bad. It' s a real nice block of wood, and a real nice idea. Yet with each new idea that I had, each new expression that I thought for sure would really change the piece for the better, it just muddied it up even more. Still,  I think each of the elements, in and of themselves, are like mini artworks. But in bringing it all together, for a cohesive whole ...well,  I just couldn't work it out. I think a massive scraping is in order, so that I can at least save the foundation and the' heart 'of this- for something better and even more beautiful and creative. It would be a shame for it to be firepit fodder.

I'm heeding the work's main message..... really.

Some new collages in the works

I'm posting some bits and pieces of two pieces that I'm in the process of creating. I'm thinking this is a better way (and probably much more motivating to me) to post these as I go...I know-that's what I said I was going to do from the get go-but it seems I keep waiting till stuff is done to post. So, turning a new leaf today, and going to try and post as I go. We'll see how this works out.

This is how I usually start my collages, if I paste them to a book cover. This cover was chosen because of it's really cool squiggly edges (and plus, it was one of those kids books that hasn't been read in quite some time, and the binding was broken). I used tissue paper to cover all, and will glue my sea plants down. It will be an underwater scene with a mermaid, or seahorse, or both, not sure yet, and some cool RHCP lyrics. Actually the lyric inspired the piece. I like that the words from the book summary are showing through. OOGLIES! OOGLIES!

This is an art nouveau motif that I designed on very thick water color paper. My idea was to put the image down using old water-color colored pencils that I have, then wash over them to get the color to pop. No dice. The paper is so thick, that I couldn't really get the color down without the paper ripping. As it turns out, this paper loves marker, and paint pens...perfect for an art noveau look. The clip art woman is a Gibson girl! She and her friends below I hand colored with pencils and will probably use them in the same composition with the art noveau motif. Kind of like a tree of life thing, but not really sure yet...though I do plan on incorporating one of my poems into the piece. That was another original intention I had when I first though about 'coffee table book' about a year ago- to combine original poems and verses with my art work.

And these chicks are too cool not to incorporate into something! I used colors that are counter-intuitive (green skin, purple hair...) not just to make the viewer really take a look at them, but because, they may be 'flowers' in some landscape. They are clip art , so hey, there's plenty more where they came from.