"The Sweet Spot"

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"Morning is the "sweet spot" of the day." I do realize that not everyone agrees with me, but you probably will as you get older...much older. Morning becomes the "sweet spot" of your day when you find yourself planning your day based on what part of the day requires alertness and not falling asleep in the chair. If you are at this stage of life, then you know exactly what I'm talking about!

There is a lot going on in these little collages, but the process of designing your artwork as you near the final completion is the way you bring order into the process. And isn't that what design is all about...arranging all of the parts to make a coherent whole?

The basic premise of my process is that black and white plus one or more colors works everytime it's tried. You will notice that I am using book pages overlaid with rice paper to create the white spaces and the black of the support (300 lb HP painted with black gesso) plus line engraved collages printed on silk tissue paper.

Rather than introducing papers with too much of a busy pattern, I have chosen to use rice papers mono printed with Speedball Printing Ink. By making gestural marks in the ink before printing, it is an opportunity to tie in all of the different colors with the plain rice papers adhered over text.

By limiting the materials and techniques to a few things rather than trying to include everything that comes to mind, it is entirely possible to have a very dynamic piece based on the elements and principles of design. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.