"Palm Branch"

($60.00.....6" x 6".......Water Soluble Oils on 2" depth Cradled Board)

There is no quote on this piece, but the word palm is written and then deconstructed by covering up part of the word. The lettering in these type of pieces is intended to create movement and a variation of line. This is an abstract of a palm branch describing its movement and color.

I was careful to use at least three values of green and three values of the tan to give the piece some depth. So this is something that still must be considered even in an abstract piece. The piece was created very much like yesterday's posting by mixing the colors and placing them on the support in varying amounts.

The greens are taking up a greater percentage of space. The dominance of one color in a abstract will calm the somewhat chaotic nature of abstraction. Dominance of any of the design elements always brings more harmony to a piece of artwork. This is very important to remember so that you know exactly what to do in order to calm a piece down when there are too many competing elements. This is an important design principle in all mediums.

It is also important to keep the shapes in mind. I intentionally added more yellow green going from the center down to the right hand corner and connecting with the other yellow green that goes off at the top. And anytime a shape can touch three sides of the design space is a good thing.

Rhythm was created by using the same directional strokes and bringing in a slight diagonal vertically and horizontally. The gestural lettering creates some more rounded lines. And by virtue of the tool itself (palette knife), some edges are sharp and some are blended into the neighboring color.

So abstraction in general is all about design. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Transformation" (Final Firing)

($300.00.....8" x 10"....Kiln Formed Glass.....Presented in a Limestone Base)

Even though this piece does not have a particular quote, the word written in glass is "transform". The exhibit I am working on now is "The Psalms". Consequently, this piece will be associated with a Psalm that I have not selected yet, although I have several in mind.

The very nature of the textures and imagery have numerous spiritual implications as well as just viewing it as a contrast in texture, line, transparency, edges, etc. The separate pieces of glass that I posted yesterday were cut and reassembled with more opaque and tinted glass added to create this three layer collage. (The textured section on the left is transparent where you see white....the right side where the crosses are was fired on top of an opaque glass with a pale lavender tint.)

It is exactly the same process used in creating a mixed media piece. You might be surrounded by mono printed rice papers which is equivalent to what I showed yesterday in sheets of glass. You then get out your cropping "L's" and make design decisions based on what you have created in single layers. By adding plain rice paper, text pages, or opaque glass, or tinted glass, you begin to reassemble and design your piece based on what you want to visually describe.

More often than not, you will discover that the piece tells you what it needs and your original thought may go by the wayside completely or change dramatically from your original thought. So be prepared to enter this process with joy and when you feel satisfied.....STOP! And of course, this is the hardest part. 

You can have a way of knowing when enough is enough by testing each addition to your piece. After deciding on a particular element of glass or paper, lay it down and then take it away. If the piece looks more confusing or just the same with the additional element...then remove it and be done. You might also try something totally unexpected and use the same test. If you go beyond the point where the piece is really finished, it will look contrived rather than convincing.

I am also making the case here for having adequate amounts of single layered glass that you have designed or adequate amounts of mono printed rice papers. You will need to have on hand a range of contrasting colors, values, shapes, textures and edges in order to be able to get as close as possible to the best piece you can create at this moment in time. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Confession"

($250.00....8" x 12" .....Kiln Formed Glass Collage.....Presented in Limestone)

"And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:11....NLT) This piece was created for an upcoming Easter Exhibit with the theme of "Fully Alive". What you see inscribed in the glass is what is commonly referred to as non verbal lettering. In other words, it is non readable. This particular passage came to me because of the non verbal lettering,  but I felt like it would visually work better to leave the verse off of the piece and explain it in the interpretation.

This is a kiln formed three layer collage. It will be presented in limestone. By creating a large sheet of the same texture and expressive lettering and then cutting it up and reassembling it into a collage, the impact is greater than it would have been had I left it in tact. 

This is a point to remember when creating a larger work for mixed media or collage works of any type. Disparate and cut up parts often come together to create something quite remarkable that would never have the same impact had the piece remained in its original form. 

What does make works like this dynamic and successful is having the separate pieces share a common denominator or two. In the very textured areas of this piece, the common denominator was the technique used. It is the same technique with different colors. by cutting them up and alternating them, the design became much stronger. This type of collage design work is especially useful when trying to figure out how to salvage a piece that simply doesn't work. By using some cropping "L's", you might find some sections that would work quite well with yet another piece. And on it goes....cut it up...recycle...reassemble...etc. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about. 

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Text"

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"Text provides knowledge and texture." Many artists, especially lettering artists, are totally enamored with text. We write it, design with it, collage it, read it, etc. Text provides us with two things that are appealing...knowledge and texture.

This entire week of posting is devoted to a series dealing with color percentages. Yesterday, there was very little color except for white and black. And in the type of collages I am creating, the black painted on the 300 lb HP provides the support with areas left visible and the white is created with text overlaid with rice paper and sometimes left visible. These two things keep the pieces anchored. The color is then provided by mono printed the rice papers with Speedball Printing Ink or...in some cases, acrylic paint. 

My color palette began with some dark green and a bit of turquoise yesterday. Today, I am expanding that palette and bringing in a yellow-green. The common denominator in these three colors is green. All three are occupying approximately 50% of the design space. The addition of the yellow green contrasted with the blue-green and the dark green adds a bit of drama. And with the exception of the red mixed in with the green to create this dark green, there is no obvious presence of a strong direct complement yet.

These are very good things to experiment with to give yourself practice in seeing how to tone down or "pump up the volume" in a piece. It's a very casual grid like format and very easy to do. Echoing the colors as well as the black, white, and transparent overlays is also important. You can also play around with arranging these bits and pieces by making a tray out of foam core and play with the pieces while watching television or riding in a car. If you're working small, you can place your pieces in snack baggies and have something very transportable. It's all about design. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"An Open Heart"

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"An open heart is ready to worship." The essence of worship is to put God first.


There are no more scraps from my large piece, so this is the last one of its kind. And only two more days of 4" x 6"'s and then I will be back to my 6 x 6 format. If you would like to receive one of these 4 x 6's...you will have a chance this Friday evening at the Opening Reception for "Visual Rhapsody". The pieces are all hung and this is an extraordinary exhibition.  (140 pieces)  Check out the invitation on our website at pactofaustin.com

After the many commentaries on "echoes", division of space, and designing corners, you can plainly see all of these things coming together in today's posting. If you like collage, design, and old books, or any other odd bits of paper, you can have great fun and a hugh learning experience in design by playing with a small piece of this type every day. If you need someone to hold your feet to the fire...call me. I'm quite good at doing that type of thing!

If you are also into other media such as mosaics, kiln formed glass, or assemblages, you will find that learning more about design through the medium of collage can help all of your work go to the next level. You can still be spontaneous and think about design at the same time. They are not mutually exclusive. In fact, the idea that things simply fall out of heaven on your head is a myth. Even people with tons of natural ability, must work hard to improve their skill level. So have fun, think, and work hard and you will soon be seeing much more depth in your work. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"A Peaceful State"

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"Music has the power to bring the soul to a peaceful state." Isn't it surprising how quickly a sad mood can disappear when music fills the air. We all need to remember how powerful it is and let the music play when stress and sadness come.

This is another 4 x 6 give away for an upcoming exhibit. It has been interesting to work in a format that isn't square. I would like to say a few words about some of the design issues in this piece.

It began with a blank sheet of 140 lb HP. I adhered a fragment of a concert program from 1935. You can actually read the date in some of the translucent black area. It was adhered with gel matte medium right out of the jar and dried with a hair dryer so I could immediately do the pouring medium.

What can happen when using black is that it can do what some people can do....suck up all of the oxygen in the room. In this case, I ended up with more black than I really wanted. The solution to this problem is to select another collage item (preferably something opaque rather than silk tissue prints) and place it somewhere in that block of color. This will break up the surface tension and then the black color block acts as a frame around the collage. The selection of the collage is very important and needs to echo the colors and theme of the piece. In this case I referenced a piece of music from medieval times where the music notation was a lot different from what we have to do.

Another more complex part of this piece is the idea of placing collage on the paper before the pouring medium to create a semi "veiled" effect. That effect combined with the transparent and opaque collage on top of the pouring medium creates a lot of depth and interest. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Caffeine"

($40.00.....5" x 5".....mounted on a 3/4" depth clayboard)

"Color is the caffeine of art." On a Monday morning, you might need more than coffee to wake up. If so, try some color. I call it the caffeine of art!

Cropping is a spontaneous process. It is so much better to work larger than the intended size so that the option of "cropping" is fully on the table. It is a spontaneous process because of the many choices and placement decisions that happen as a result of cutting something off in an unusual place that you might not have thought of if working from a predetermined size.

The piece today was cropped on a diagonal of the larger piece. I was able to decide to allow more blue to show and cut off the red running along side of the blue vertically. By cropping in this way I was able   to create a corner pattern which acts as arrows pointing to the decorative element in the right hand corner. The black showing at the top also acts as an "echo" of the other black areas and completes a framing out of the three strong colors.

The one other thing that was done to create a black + white + color scheme is to pour the colors with enough space in between to allow the white to show through. (White plus pouring medium was applied to entire sheet before colors were poured.) This creates an alternating effect as well as some softly diffused edges. In mixed media, design is the name of the game. And there you have it, just a few more things to think about.


Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Important Issues"

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"Don't let the most important issues get pushed to the edge." I once read a book called "Tyranny of the Urgent. It was all about those incessant details that eat up all of our time. Sometimes those details must be pushed aside to make room for the important things.

This is a much darker piece than I typically like to do, but the details at the edges (hence the quote) gave me a green light. I would have preferred a bit more white in the large brown color block, but with pouring medium...what you pour is what you get. I still like it very much because I'm a Burnt Sienna type of gal and this piece has a bit of a "western feel" to me.

So the point I'm trying to make is not to give up on all of your pouring medium pieces even when the colors don't land exactly where you want them to. What does work in this piece is the contrast of size in the color blocks. Brown obviously takes up the most space, but that sets the stage for the Burnt Sienna and Pthalo Green to be the "bling" in the piece with a sparkle of white in both areas. The unequal distribution of color is probably more important than if I had all the same of amount of colors showing equally. And, of course, those two special areas were the perfect place to add a bit of line work to bring attention to those areas and also be an echo of the shapes of those two color blocks.

In fact, that large brown color block compels me to look at the bright colors where there is also some detail. It's quite fascinating to notice why the human eye gravitates to particular areas where there is a "push pull" effect going on with color, values, and division of space. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Recharge Zone"

($40.00.....6" x 6".....mounted on a 1/8" depth clayboard panel)


"A recharge zone is a place of renewal." Everyone needs a recharge zone. It's that place or activity that helps you "chill out" and get renewed. If you're like me, you need more time in your recharge zone.

This is an interesting piece and was a total experiment in layering over a pouring medium piece. Because I've created and looked at a ton of these type of pieces, I am wanting to take it to another level by integrating other techniques into the process. Pouring medium is a very "charged" look and process that can also be overpowering. My desire is to bring in enough other elements (but not too much) that will create a contrast between active and passive.

For the most part, that means introducing some very straight lines to counter the active movement of the pour. I may have too much of a "counter attack" going on here, but part of my purpose for blogging everyday is to work through all of the design issues that come up with mixed media processes.

What I do like very much is the lovely texture created by writing into Speedball Printing Ink (with water)that has been applied over Silver Leaf. Of course, the silver leaf was adhered with Gel Matte Medium and then partially removed. It sticks very well most of the time, but it is necessary to reveal the previous layer so I used rubbing alcohol and a stiff brush, following by immediate blotting with a kleenex to create all of those erratic edges.

And if you don't have time for a piece every day, you might want to try doing one 6" x 6" every week. Putting a piece together is a wonderful way to learn design because of all the decisions that must be made to bring the whole thing to a conclusion. So there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Priority"

($40.00.....5" x 5".....mounted on a 1.50" depth clayboard)


"Priority means that not all things receive the same amount of space and attention." For most of us, priorities need to be "fine tuned" everyday. It is very easy to allow non essential things occupy our time. The same is true in art. It is very easy to allow non essential elements to occupy space. Non essentials need to be omitted completely.

To allow all of the colors in your artwork to occupy the same percentage of space equals boredom. Try making a black and white copy of your artwork and notice the range in values...in comparison to the gray scale. If everything is almost white in your black and white copy, then you have a serious issue with not making your dark values dark enough or not having any dark values at all. If your piece is all medium to dark gray, then you have a problem with not including enough light values. This black and white copy will also tell you if you have any shapes in your piece. Even if you are working on an overall design for a background, in order to have a strong design, you must have a range of values from white to black. Failure to do so will lead to chaos and the viewer will look at your work for all of two seconds!

You should be able to see some strong shapes in your work from across the room. Just dabbing on color all over does not a painting make and it also does not make an interesting enough background. Remember that we are all bombarded with visuals every day. To have people view your artwork requires a careful attention to division of space, values, shapes, edges, corners, etc. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Worship"

($300.00.....10" x 10"....kiln formed galss...can be presented on a pedestal or hung with glass hardward)


The posting today is a piece created for an upcoming exhibit at Hill Country Bible Church NW. It is a three layer kiln formed glass piece. The text is from Psalm 118: 19 (NLT). Happy Father's Day to all the dads.

This piece is all about color blocks of texture and contrast of opacity and transparency. The size of the blocks in this piece is what makes it so unique. It can be displayed on a pedestal or hung on a wall with glass hardware.  (It was photographed laying on a white background)

The same erratic edges that are created with a palette kinfe and acrylic or oil paint were created in this piece with a palette knife and glassline paint. This is a paint that can be fired at a full fuse and looks like actual paint would look. So it's very exciting to be able to do some of the same things in glass that can be done in mixed media.

The same rules of design apply. The one important thing to take away is that color is what unites different textures and shapes. So if you're working on a piece with disparate parts and it doesn't seem to be coming together, take note of your colors and values. Nine changes out of ten, you will then be able to correct the problem. Just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Power Through"

($150.00.....8" x 12"......kiln formed glass.....presented on an iron easel or glass hardward on a wall)

"Power through relational roadblocks on your knees." There is not one person who has or is experiencing a relational roadblock. Prayer is the answer to your peace and the path to reconciliation.

This piece is kiln formed glass with a definite feel of mixed media. The same things I have been creating with silk tissue paper and its supreme transparency is the same thing that happens with glass quite naturally. It's called a three layer collage in glass. The extreme texture you see is the result of stacking glass that has been textured and fired and then put together again in layers and refired.

Layering always creates depth. The secret to effective layering is keeping your colors and imagery clean and crisp. If the individual images of the layering is "muddied" or unclear, then the layering is not nearly as effective. It is also important to think in terms of contrasting opacity with transparency.

This way of layering, whether it's glass or silk tissue papers, is one of the most effective ways to learn about design. The ability to move things around and see things in different arrangements gives you the freedom to explore without the threat of disaster looming over you like a cloud. You will know when it's right. And since it is impossible to look at cut up glass before it's fused from across the room, just lay it on a sheet of foam core on the floor. That places the piece far enough away from you to actually see if it's working or not. So there you have it. Just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Time Share"

($150.00.....8" x 8".....presented on an easel or mounted on wall with glass brackets)


"Share the gift of time with others." This quote is referencing a different kind of "time share". And when you think about it, giving the gift of time is a rather expensive gift considering the busy schedules we all have. That makes it even more special. (This is an 8" x 8" piece consisting of three layers of glass and fully fused in a kiln.)

This type of glass work is very similar to mixed media work. The artist still has to be concerned about division of space, designing the corners, edges, paying attention to values, etc. This is called a glass collage but obviously created differently than a piece created with paper.

In this type of work, the glass is textured separately with glass powders, glassline paint, etc. and then fired in a kiln. The pieces are then cut and rearranged to form the collage and then fired again. The one line of lettering is then written and the glass is fired again at a lower temperature to keep the lettering from spreading.

The big thing to take away from this is that whether it is glass, oils, watercolor, acrylics, or mixed media, the facts remain the same. Paintings are made up of shapes. I know I sound like a broken record, but I've done enough teaching to know that some things must be repeated especially if they're important things. And this is an important thing. Thinking in shapes will keep you from many disasters. Just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Lettering"

($40.00.....6" x 6"......mounted on a 1/8" depth clayboard panel)

"Lettering gives a voice to the deepest things we feel." Whether it's journaling, creating a one off piece of artwork or simply writing on a scrap of paper, lettering allows us to release our deepest feelings on any surface that will receive the written letter.

Today's posting is all about the leading role in the play and the supporting cast. Composition is what the artist does to organize their design space into a coherent whole.

In this piece, the obvious star of the play is the ornate "L". It is the largest letter and the only image which gives the viewer an obvious place to focus their eyes upon. As the viewer gets closer to the piece, they will recognize the supporting cast. Texture is a great supporting cast, giving the viewer some compelling and subtle gestural marks that were created in the gesso before any paint, silver leaf, or collage was applied. And the subtlety of the lime green color is a feast for the eyes against the silver and black.

The "jerky" and erratic letters of the quote were meant to emulate a person writing who is overcome with the emotions they might be feeling that initiated the writing in the first place. You can also clearly see a strong division of space with the gray and silver touching all sides of the space in an unequal fashion so that the black color blocks in all four corners are different sizes. So this is a continuuing analysis of what is happening in the piece to better understand how to enter into design intentionally rather than simply doing whatever comes to mind. Just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"An Opportunity"

($60.00......6" x 6"......mounted on a 1.50" depth clayboard)


"An opportunity is an unspoken invitation to do something." In order to take advantage of an opportunity, it is important to be able to recognize what the invitation looks like. It is often hidden in a unique set of circumstances that offer potential growth or advantage in your life.

This piece has a very Spanish feel because of the colors and the ornate "O". If you like intense color, it is easy to do by selecting primary and secondary colors without too much dilution. The red and green in this piece are very strong and only a slight addition of red to the green. The orange is "grayed" down with white added. And then, of course, the black and white are essential to create such a direct impact.

Also, take note that black is the "bling" in this piece, but it would have been overpowering to have anymore. Another important design point here is the strong block of red, but the orange surrounded it is very diffused with no hard edges.

What I have just done for you is analyze some of the reasons why this piece has so much impact. Learning to think analytically can speed up your learning curve dramatically. When looking at your work or someone else's work, notice the division of space...what is going on in every corner...and what color scheme is used...and whether the colors are intense, diluted, and how much space they occupy. It will open your eyes to the world of design. Just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Truth and Reality"

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"Truth and reality merging together create an environment for change." Reality is a difficult thing to face at times, but the truth always equalizes the equation.

This is a 5" x 5" piece and I chose this size because there is often a piece left over from all the pouring medium I do that I particularly like, but there may not be enough to create a 6" x 6". So if you have already discovered the marvelous benefits of cropping, don't forget that clayboards also come in these smaller sizes. These pieces are perfect to sit on an easel in a book case or coffee table.

The black in the bottom right hand corner was my starting point for considering placement of lettering and the one collage element. This is the time to pull out the removable tape and place the collage piece in several places before committing. As it turned out, the upper left hand corner was the perfect spot and it balances out the black in the opposing diagonal corner. And if you take a few minutes to ask why this might be so, you will have a bit more design information under your belt.

After adhering the tissue paper collage (gampi tissue) with gel matte medium (applied to the support, not the paper), I then knew exactly where to place the lettering. You can see that it connects the collage piece to the black color block, creating a connection between the two and also creating another strong division of space. It is often helpful to know how someone else arrives at design decisions so these are just a few more things to think about.

"Extraneous Detail"

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"Focus is the exclusion of extraneous detail in all areas except one." Focus is never easy because we all have a ton of detail in our lives. This visual is just a small reminder to exclude all extraneous detail in order to focus on just one thing.

This pouring medium piece was absent of all detail with just large color blocks making up the image. However, the very minute that I added detail to the circular space, the piece had a focal point and hence the quote. This is a very important design tip. So whenever you have ambiguous color that has no sense of direction...just remember to add some detail to one area. If you try to add detail to other areas, the impact is lost. When you go into a large building and you see a logo or writing in just one area of a large expanse of stone, where does your eye go to? Of course, it's the writing. In art, it is very important to understand how a viewer perceives visual imformation. Be a good editor and resist the urge to place pattern everywhere. It ruins the impact.

Also, a few pointers on stamping and printing imagery. If you want your stamping to integrate nicely into your piece, try using Speedball Printing Ink (water soluble) so that you can mix the right color. Stamp pads will look "cheesy" because they are not always dense in color or it's not the right color. Another tip when using commercial stamps, don't print the entire image. For instance, in this piece I printed a portion of the stamp and some of it printed into the surrounding area. Because Speedball Printing Ink is water soluble, you can simply wash off or diminish with a damp paper towel any part of the image you want to remove. You can clearly see where I have softened some of the lines in this stamp.

It seems like I learn something everyday about design and you will too...if you don't get discouraged and give up. Just keep going and think about all of these things.

"Red" (unavailable)

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"Enjoy the color red for it communicates love better than any other color." Have you noticed how the color red is associated with several of our top holidays? Not only Valentines Day, but Christmas, and the Fourth of July. It is a color that we are already seeing everywhere so enjoy the festive atmosphere and the one you love!

Don't even ask me how I manipulated the pouring medium mixture to spontaneously come up with a heart because I have no idea! What I do know is that all kinds of magical things happen when working with pouring medium. I will probably never tire of it completely but I do expect it to continue evolving as more techniques are tried.

If you have been trying this on your own, I would like to give you another tip. It is very important to leave some of the paper untouched completely or covered with light color. I have actually frightened myself with some of the color combinations and when the entire design space is covered with this moving color, it will give you a sense of being engulfed to the point you cannot work on the piece. Somehow, the untouched areas of paper seem to ground and stabilize the process. It also gives you a place to write. Just a few more things to think about.

"Bridge the Gap"

($40.00....6" x 6" mounted on a 1/8" depth clayboard panel)


"Bridge the gap between focused and unfocused thinking." Focused thinking means to give all of your attention to one thing. It is extremely difficult to focus if our thoughts are all over the map. Just try shutting down all audio input and focusing on a single thing. Setting a time limit will also help to make decisions quicker without "fussing" over things.

This is a piece created with Liqitex Pouring Medium and Acrylic paint. From across the room, it looks like an aerial view of water with a strip of land spanning across. I decided to have three windows that were created by cutting out from the leftover sheet that this piece was cropped from. I wanted to visually show that by breaking up the space with windows that also create a hard edge was a way to interpret my quote visually. By doing this, I control where the viewer wants to look. The white dot in the largest window is where the eye wants to go so I began the lettering in that area. Windows will also create shapes within the piece to break up all of the diffused edges from colors mingling together. In design, too much of the same thing will leave the desire for more contrast.

The impact of color from across the room is phenomenal and the lettering takes a back seat. In fact, the lettering blends in so completely that it cannot be read from across the room. I like the way the lettering blends in and quietly steps out of the design space. Just a few more things to try or think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Curtain Call"

($40.00)


"Enjoy the fall before the curtain closes on red, orange, and yellow and opens again to the faithful evergreens." This photo was taken in Hyde Park in Santa Fe. There are a few spots of color here in Central Texas so try to visually drink that in, but also enjoy the vicarious experience of fall in other parts of the country. The curtain is about to close.


Yesterday, I gave a step by step instruction on how to incorporate your photos into a piece of artwork. This hazy look created with Titan Buff (Golden) plus Liquitex Pouring Medium will do this for you in varying degrees of opacity.

Abstraction describes the essence of something real and anything that is altered can be considered an abstract. Just painting red, yellow, and orange on your design space in geometric form or a few organic shapes could be an abstract of a fall landscape even though you would not see actual trees in that kind of presentation. In the case of photography, additional paint and mediums or inclusions can blur the edges between total realism and abstraction so in that sense, I have abstracted the photo. In days to come you will probably see me do it a little more drastically. The point is perfectly summed up in a quote by Pablo Picasso..."There is no abstract art. You must always start with something".

If you are interested in brief dissertations on abstraction as well as other prominent "design" words, I highly recommend a book by Tim McCreight entitled...Design Language. It can be ordered from John Neal Bookseller and will give you many insights into design.

The following direct quote from this book will give you the flavor of its pages. "Some people think abstract art just means something weird-looking; this is incorrect. Weird is easy but abstract work springs from, and must be responsive to a physical reality." So there you are. Just a few things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.