"Alive and Active" (Draft 2)

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"Words become alive and active when they take root in the heart." As the piece evolves, I am beginning to see exactly what I want to emphasize in relation to the quote. There will be one more draft tomorrow and then the final on Sunday.  

On another note,  tonight is the Opening Reception for "Fully Alive" at The Open Doors Gallery at Hill Country Bible Church of Austin.  The public is invited.  Details can be found at the following website (http://pactofaustin.com/)  Hope to see you there!

I hope you can see that a grid like format gives a lot of structure to a piece. It gives many shapes to work with. (Remember that all paintings / pieces are made up of shapes.) It is a good idea when beginning the first layer to have some kind of format in mind. And it's okay if it changes along the way, but to simply place papers anywhere with no format or layout in mind is to invite disaster. 

So yesterday, I had laid down metal leaf in an informal grid like format by cutting up the metal leaf into irregular squares and rectangles and making sure to keep slivers of the black exposed. I had also added a bit of text on some of the silver pieces...allowing the edges of the silver to be revealed and in a very irregular way.....in other words, don't get out a ruler and measure. 

Today, I added more text on the remaining silver pieces and then added plain rice paper over most of the text, but leaving some of the edges and text exposed. It is all about deciding what to reveal and conceal and to what degree. 

I then added some mono printed rice papers and deliberately covered up some of the black in the background but leaving some of the previous edge of the plain rice paper showing. I also made a conscious decision to keep the mono printed rice papers around the periphery as though it is framing the central portion. The middle top piece has no mono print to visually interpret the quote by suggesting that somewhere in the piece there is an entrance into the center.

Today I plan to add more plain rice paper and further emphasize the strong black erratic lines that you see today. I may also choose to cover up a portion of the mono printed rice papers to make more irregular shapes. The last thing I did today before photographing the piece was to spray the entire thing with spray acrylic coating which brings out the patina of the old text pages and makes the plain rice paper translucent. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Reality"

($40.00.....6" x 6"....300 lb HP mounted on a 1/8" depth clayboard panel)

"Reality is a non negotiable." We live in a world where many would like to rewrite reality. It cannot be rewritten because it is real and therefore a non negotiable.

Collage pieces are so much more effective if previous layers are "veiled". It creates depth, mystery, and a highly enriched surface. If you only lay down one layer of anything, many of these qualities are lost. Laying a collage element down and then overlapping it with an image that is translucent or transparent is the most effective way. It can be accomplished with printed images on silk tissue paper, overlays of rice paper, or glazes of lightly tinted washes, diluted gesso, etc.

In this piece, you are looking at a grid format with some of the black gesso of the support left untouched. And there are several transparent and translucent sections that add a rich patina...especially in the center of focus where the quote has been written. This piece also has the additional movement that appears in all of the purple segments. Gestural writing written into the block printing ink before the mono print was done has created this movement. It is important to include some type of movement in these mono printed areas since the obvious and mostly straight lines of this format can become static.

Also, by tearing out a corner of the center piece, I've created a contrasting edge, line, and shape. Again, the center of focus is framed out by the placement of the purple mono printed segments on all four sides, but in varying sizes. Some of these decisions are made intuitively, but it also helps by reiterating the decisions in this commentary. Hopefully, it helps you to understand my process and know what to look for in other works by different artists. The best way to learn design is by experimenting, reading, and analyzing over and over again. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Dreams"

($40.00......6" x 6"....300 lb HP mounted on a 1/8" depth clayboard panel)

"Dreams are harvested in a field of prayer." It can take time for many of our dreams to materialize. Waiting on God in prayer gives power to the wait and insight for the process.

Intense color can act as an informal frame around a piece. This grid format was topped off with a red tint around the edges in varying percentages. So just one intense color plus black and white will give a "punch" without overpowering the piece if the percentages of that one color are kept low.

Bringing black into the text blocks also creates a different dynamic. The torn edges are the dominant edge and provide interest to the shapes. The grid format holds out the opportunity for endless variations, but only if the shapes, sizes, and the way the grid is formed has variation. So when introducing any element of design, the repetition of that element works much better if there is variation. 

And one of the effective ways of bringing in variation is to use the same element in a different size. It is then possible to go a step further and alter the texture with mark making, technique in application of the color, or adding something of another element that is present in the piece.

So the tension between harmony and contrast really does boil down to repetition with variation. Look at these kind of things in other artwork. Being specific about what you look for in a piece is one way to learn about design. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Poderosos en Fortaleza"

($200.00.....12" x 12".....300 lb. HP mounted on a 1.50" depth clayboard)

"Praise the Lord, you His angels. You His mighty ones, who do His bidding, who obey His Word." (NIV) This is the last of three larger works created for an exhibit at Open Doors Gallery at Hill Country Bible Church. In another posting I referred to angels as the caretakers or caregivers of the world. That was inspiration for choosing this particular scripture.

Many artists have trouble with choosing a format, especially in a collage arrangement. The type of format I have chosen is a grid format. So when I am laying down papers, most of the first layers have straight edges. There are a few torn edges and overlapping shapes that create other shapes, but over all, you can see a grid formation, but it is not precisely measured or layed down in a precise manner. It was done very spontaneously.

My two main color selections were orange and blue, with blue having a slight edge over the orange in percentage of space it occupies.  If I had chosen to "tone" down the piece more, I could have allowed the blue or the orange to be obviously more dominant. By allowing them to occupy almost the same percentage of space, it becomes more dramatic. But of course, the black, gray, and white areas are dominant in this piece. 

In the next few weeks, I will be experimenting with strongly contrasting percentages to achieve all kinds of different looks. So when you look at an interior of a room with colors you love, pay very close attention to percentages and the amount of detail in a room. If you like clean contemporary rooms, you will want to cut a whole lot of the detail and have more translucent areas where text or imagery is barely visible and color areas have little or no detail. By choosing one kind of paper (such as rice paper) and mono printing them yourself, you can create more unity than you will get by grabbing just any old paper that's lying around. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.