Embroidered Collage

I've been through a couple of very conflicted weeks regarding the Daily Devotions art challenge.  I loved it, was frustrated with it, abandoned it, rehashed it, and have begun it again. 

I was first drawn to the art everyday plan by the romance of the idea.  I joined because I wanted to create a body of work and by doing so both experiment and improve the quality of my art.  I already did some art almost everyday, and was enjoying too many ideas to need the creativity spur, so I chose as my goal to complete a piece of art in a day, with the long term idea of having an exhibit in 2007, group or solo, official or renting space on my own, in some fashion.

After my first three weeks, and two missed days near the end of them, I was thrilled with my results.  I found three formats I wanted to explore further.  I'd made pieces I wouln't have approached otherwise.  Some were mediocre, but some were really good.  This was fun.

But I'd also been thinking about my overarching business goal - getting my art to support itself in terms of fees, supplies, and eventually classes - and how I was going to meet that goal.  I doubted whether the time and energy I put into doing and stocking away the DD365 pieces was the best way to go about it, and whether, if I could have an exhibit in 2007, I would really want it to be these pieces.

I stopped for a little while in my confusion, thinking.  A week later, I've noticed something.  I MISS it.  I miss making something that isn't part of a major goal or for a mail art swap.  So, I'm determined to bring it back.  With a couple changes regarding the results.

I want to primarily make pieces of a format I'm willing to sell on etsy.  I'll set aside each two weeks production for another two weeks, then review them.  I'll sort out the best couple to keep, maybe for an exhibit after all, put the next tier up for sale, and stash the ummms away as exercises to eventually be reused or discarded. 

In addition to the benefits I'd already discovered, I think this approach will add new ones.  I can indulge myself in some colored pencil sketching in my new little moleskine, since every piece doesn't have to be for sale.  I can take greater risks, since a failure/learning experience can be blog and recycle pile fodder but doesn't need to be for sale.  I will be presenting my best work.

My thought for the day - changing direction as you move along doesn't mean you're giving up, just that you can see the path you are traveling on more clearly.  I love this journey. :)

I picked up a second color of acrylic ink - silver - at the art store and wanted to play a little.  I pulled a text page from my stash and mounted it on watercolor paper for a background because I wanted to see what kind of transparency the inks had.  I knew the bluegreen had some because I used it in the architecture collage.

I dipped drops of ink on the paper and spread them around with a brush to get full coverage.  And then I started adding more here and there to get thickness variations and interest.  As I developed pools I began to tilt the paper, directing the lines.  I'm quite satisfied with my results and am looking forward to acquiring more colors to play with.

 To the left is Day 5.  I doodle while on the phone at work, so I thought I'd take in some nice drawing paper and a pen and see what I came up with instead of my usual lined paper and ball-point.  This was the result, trimmed down a bit to 5x7 from a larger size paper to make sure the composition would be framed in some fashion that I liked.

Above is Day 6.  This 9x12 is done with watercolor crayons again.  I had started this piece just trying to put some color down on the page with the intent that in the afternoon I'd add stitching to whatever I did.  Instead, as I started adding water, I began to see a landscape of some variety.  So I manipulated my water use, also adding color with the crayons, to enhance and bring out what I was seeing.  I could have still stitched on it, but decided I liked it the way it was.  I enjoyed the thrill of discovery in working this piece.

The mandala on the left was my Day 3 devotion.  I did it in watercolor crayon and then painted, spending some time experimenting with water application.  I wasn't happy with the result and thought to make more marks.  The triangularish areas reminded me of a certain stitch, so I started there and kept going.  I'm happier with it now that it has the extra texture.

The collage on the right was my Day 4 devotion.  It's made completely from junk mail I got that day and was a bit of a surprise to me, as I don't usually do figural work.

I tried my first found poetry today.  I pulled six pages from a book and started circling words, then chose the two that I could most invision making collages from.  Somehow they both ended up a little somber.

On the left is a new Art and Words deco.  The piece reads

deep smoke - smell of shadows - eyes, - open - looked off. out

On the right is today's daily devotions piece, about 6"x9".  This piece reads

She - discovered - the pen - her pen - knew - crying

This is my first piece done with watercolor crayons, something I'd been wanting to try for a while.  It is also my first Daily Devotion art piece.  He started out on a 9x12 piece of paper but ended up cropped down to 5x7.  I liked the intensifying effect of having the image fill the page.

I reaffirmed that I need to keep working in my sketchbook.  As I stared at the box of crayons and the blank piece of paper last night and tried to figure out what to depict, I realized that the themes I'd be most likely to carry out effectively were the ones that I'd played with in the sketchbook, whether done from imagination, books, or life.

The watercolor crayons are easy to work with and I like the result, but want to develop it further.  What happens on a smoother paper, with a more controlled application of water, with deeper shading, if I add in watercolor pencils, if I use wax crayons for some of the outlining and details?  Can I successfully mix areas in an image of fully blended water with areas untouched by water, plus some gradations in between?  What happens if I work into wet paper?