Creative Connections in Southern Pines, NC

I'm having trouble uploading pictures at the moment so I will do half of my intended post now with what blogger allowed me to do.

Earliar this Spring when I started doing collages, I was inspired by a post from ArtsyMama where she gave prompts on how to start a collage, different mediums to use, and basically laid out the foundation of creating a journalled collage piece. I thought I had a completed version of this work, but I couldn't find it. This is the first couple of layers (paint and journaling). I had the completed version up at a local shop for the last couple of months but it didn't sell. Which I totally understand as it was one of my first works and just not where I am today as far as technique.

I brought it back home, hung it back up, then thought, well do I take it and revise it and make it better? Or do I leave it as is, as a symbol to mark how far I've come?

I chose to revise it and evolve some more.

This weekend I met some wonderful ladies in the area who are local artists. Every first Friday of the month, our downtown area stays open till 9:00 (yes most days it shuts down at 5 which is a shame since so many of us work and can't shop or visit the unique restaurants and boutiques during the daytime hours). After buying special paints from one of the local artists, Amy
Smith, I visited the shop where she is featured called Artist Alley, owned by mixed media artist, Jean Skipper. I was so inspired by all the lovely artistic works within the gallery that I wanted to try out my new paints and thus used this older collage as the foundation to my latest work called "Chasing Dreams".

I took off all the 3 dimensional items on my old collage and used my now "signature technique" of scraping paint using a credit card to lay the foundation of this revised work. I sponged another layer using my new paint, then credit card layer again. I didn't know where I was going until I finished the background. Because I left alot of white in the center, I thought it would be perfect for a sort of fairy like portrait. The hair was the next layer composed of textured tissue paper (found at the dollar store of all places!).

Slowly she comes to life. Layer by layer.

I've been using music alot as not just a background foundation but also as paper cut outs (you can see the placement of the flowers); it's hard to see in this photo but the music is also the foundation for my fairy's lips and eyes, over which I layered more tissue paper.

And this is where we are right now....closer to the finish line. Quite an evolution, isn't it? This piece is big, 16 x 20 so when I finish it may still be hard to photograph correctly because of my camera but it is already becoming one of my favorite pieces so far. Actually, each piece is a favorite for different reasons just like a proud Mama.

Going back to the ladies at Artist Alley--I want to thank them for the warm welcome. After some short conversations this week and last week, they asked me to join them in their mixed media artist guild that meets monthly in Raleigh called the Carolina Mixed Media Artist Guild. I definitely want to join up and hope that I can work my schedule around it as I think its a great opportunity to learn new techniques, bond with other local artists and really share in a common passion for creating with other like minded individuals.

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In my next post, I will share with you my trip to the Cameron Antique show as well as our trip on Saturday to the Southern Pines Fall Craft Festival--so much to do so little time!! Isn't that the way it always goes!

Hope your week is artfully good!

lucy


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