"The Womb of Trust"

(unavailable......6" x 6".....Mixed Media on 300 lb HP....presented in a custom frame)

"Joy is birthed in the womb of trust." Trusting God is the core message of this quote. This is a piece that will be submitted for an Easter exhibit. So from now until the week of Easter, there will be pieces that are designed to fit in with the theme of "Fully Alive".

This piece incorporates the same materials as my posting yesterday. There is old book pages, rice paper, deconstruction techniques, and kiln formed glass. 

Today, I want to address the issue of deconstruction and patina on different surfaces. Several in my last mixed media class are still having issues with deconstruction. So I have been paying close attention to the particular elements that need to be in place to achieve optimal results. I have noticed that when I laid down plain rice paper over old book pages and then deconstructed another page of text over that (deconstruction is laying a paper down and pulling it off)...the moisture that was still present in the fresh rice paper that had just been laid down has everything to do with the deconstructed piece leaving part of its surface behind. 

So in this piece, I had laid everything under a rock overnight and all of the rice papers were extremely dry this morning. By simply brushing on some gel matte med. to the rice paper already attached to the piece....the piece you place on top of that (also coated with med) will more readily leave behind traces of the part that was laid into the damp rice paper.

Another technique I used on this piece was laying down some text in the bottom left hand corner that says "Trust in God". I did not want it to look like it was an afterthought, so I lightly sanded (with very fine grit sandpaper) the edges and brushed over the top. I then added ever more rice paper over part of that to completely imbed it into the background. After doing these things, I covered the glass part with masking tape and sprayed the text pages with Spray Acrylic Coating. This immediately makes the plain rice paper more transparent....and sometimes too transparent, especially if you are writing on top of this surface. So I added more plain rice paper strips in select areas before spraying again at least two times before preparing the surface for lettering.

Hope this helps those of you who have a keen interest in integration using deconstruction and sanding techniques. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.