"Barbed Wire" (unavailable)

(in permanent collection of dee day)

Cattle and barbed wire are part of the Texas landscape. You can barely travel five miles in our rural areas without seeing it. In fact, I can look out my studio window and see it. We are not cattle ranchers, but we do have five steers. One of them keeps thinking that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence...so up went another strand of wire this week. Those of you who live in our fine state know what I'm talking about!

To many of my friends, this piece would be considered too "cliched". And it probably is, but I like to do these very graphic, bold pieces anyway. I'll get back to my traditional abstract / realism style tomorrow!

Whichever style I'm doing I still think about the key points that give a piece interest and keep the viewer engaged. Division of the space is the first point. In lettering art, there is a tendency to gravitate to a "vignette" format....image or lettering in the center with space all around. There is nothing wrong with this at all, but it does fall more into the category of strictly lettering rather than lettering art, with the emphasis on ART. Good division of space means that your edges extend from edge to edge...touching at least two sides...in an unequal divide.

The second point is to design the corners. Make sure there is something different in every corner. (I learned that from Leanna Fay. She was a prominent lettering artist with a fine arts degree....passed away several years ago.) Remember to notice what the corners look like when cropping. These two main points must be considered if you want the viewer to look at your work more than five seconds. Observing how other artists handle these two points will immediately help you understand why you're drawn to some artwork more than others. Just something to think about.


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