"Mi Reposo"

($60.00......6" x 6"......Pouring Medium.....Mounted on a 1.50" depth Clayboard)

"Stop striving and enter His rest." This is a paraphrase from Hebrews 4:13. It will be submitted for an upcoming Easter Exhibit. "Entraran mi reposo" is Spanish for "Enter my rest."

In this piece, I pumped up the volume in the lettering by combining gestural writing, Roman Versals, and Spencerian Script. There are many people who want lettering to be extremely readable, but I love expressive and gestural writing as well, so this is an illustration of how they can be combined to satisfy my artistic voice and also satisfy the average person who thinks all lettering should be readable. 

This is a pouring medium background from my stash. I am preparing to write on two similar surfaces in an 8" x 8" size so this piece was a precursor to the larger ones. I did the expressive background lettering with a pointed pen. (The surface had been prepared for lettering with (2) parts water to (1) part Gel Matte Medium with (3) applications.) After this lettering was dried, I sprayed it (2x) with Spray Acrylic Coating and prepared it for lettering again.

Next came the Roman Versals, written on tracing paper so I could position it over the expressive lettering. I then transferred it to the piece by scribbling on another sheet of tracing paper with a 3B pencil and slipping it beneath the tracing paper with the lettering and rewriting to transfer it to the piece. The Versals were written with a pointed pen. The one line of Spencerian Script was written last. 

So this is how I prepare to do lettering on larger works. Doing them in a smaller format is the ticket and also gives me another completed piece. The piece is now ready to be sprayed again with Spray Acrylic Coating (3x) and then mounted on a 1.50" depth Ampersand Clayboard. After the sides are painted black, the entire piece will be sprayed one last time with Golden Spray Varnish for Acrylics. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Practice and Perseverance"

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"Practice and perseverance are the bread and water of success." Often we think of practice in relationship to learning a skill. Equal attention given to developing and practicing good habits is also important even if a particular skill is not involved.

After creating pouring medium pieces non stop for almost three weeks now, I am even more aware of the importance of "echoes" and contrasts. An echo is simply a repeat of something that is always there, but it doesn't need to be an identical repeat. In the piece today, I consider the line engraving an echo of the erratic band of brown and black at the bottom because of the shapes. But it is also a very good contrast between precise lines and erratic lines and contemporary vs. antique. The two shapes play off of each other very well. And even though the line engraving could be considered a floating shape with no connection, it is integrated because of its transparency and precisely because it is an echo of something already there.

This is the "tricky" part of design that is only realized after doing something over and over again. Placement of the line engraving was also important. By placing it high on the page and almost dead center, it mimics the format of a traditional document where there were headings like this and perhaps a similar ending at the bottom. So I brought it into a contemporary format by having the band of color at the bottom mimic the line engravings I've seen in so many historical documents. And, of course, this look is one I am passionate about and hence the Spencerian Script rather than gestural writing which would have been inappropriate for this look. And if my thought processes have worn you out, be encouraged. They wear me out everyday as well, but fortunately or unfortunately for me, I have a very analytical brain! And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Salutis"

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"Salutis to all my art friends." The word "salutis" means "greetings". I am with a lot of art friends in Houston and had a fabulous time! Art friends always know what you're talking about and want to come along beside you and be creative.

This is another 5" x 5" and I was happy to discover that the pouring medium shape touched (3) sides of the design space after being cropped. I had already stamped the paper with a commercial stamp and acrylic paint on blank 140 lb. HP before doing the pour. It was important to use acrylic paint to do this. If I had used something water soluble which would then need to be sprayed with acrylic coating, it might have created a resist when doing this pour.

The actual word "Salutis" is a word printed on silk tissue paper and then adhered to the support by brushing on gel matte to the actual piece and then carefully placing the tissue paper into the medium. Several people yesterday wanted to know how to print something as thin as tissue paper using an ink jet printer. If you just think about this carefully, it is quite easy. You must first make a copy of your selected image on regular copy paper and watch how it exits the printer. Then you would cut a small piece of tissue paper to cover only the portion you want to print and tape it to this copy paper with removable tape. You would then run it back through your printer in the very same way it went through the first time. Spray your print with Krylon Acrylic Spray Coating...dry with a hair dryer...remove the tape and adhere the print.

My choice of placement for this one piece of collage was simple. When in doubt...go for the corner. Corners should be one of your main design decisions because it locks the viewer into your space visually. Things that are floating out in the middle somewhere with no connecting color or line to the edge will lose the visual communication you are desiring. By finishing off the quote clear to the edge, I was able to bring stability to all the motion of the pouring medium and create another shape by going from edge to edge. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"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.

"Jewels"

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


"Jewels of insight are the reward of deep thinking." The skill of deep thinking may be a lost art, but those who stay the course and practice their thinking skills will have many jewels of insight. Select a quiet, meditative environment and think away!

This visual is a mental image of what I feel like when I am thinking. It's a bit contorted, takes many twists and turns and then the jewels of purple, gold, and green appear as wonderful insights, providing the reward of deep thinking.

The power of cropping is quite evident here. You can see two unequal white areas and then the diagonal band of moving color. That's why I encourage everyone who tries this to leave areas of white or light and very diffused color in parts of the design space. Covering the whole thing with dynamic color can be overwhelming and discourage the viewer from looking more than (5) seconds.

I did break my rule of having the lettering straight when there is this much going on, but in this case, it is a way of having the lettering "go with the flow" so to speak. There is nothing I like better than camouflaging the lettering within the piece and that is done by following the flow of lines or edges in the piece and using the color that is prevalent.

Even without lettering this piece could stand confidently on its own and be a dynamic visual in any environment. Just a few more things to think about.


Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.