Baby Steps and Being Brave

I think I've come one step further in my quest to make a more collage-y collage.  To quote Richard Dreyfuss from the movie What About Bob, I'm taking "baby steps".  I am rarely able to just make a quantum leap from one style or medium to another; it generally happens as a progression of experiments, adjusting one variable at a time.  It sounds pretty scientific, but to me, it feels more like wandering around in the dark until I bump into something- a bit scary.

Trying to make a change in your work, or embark on a new series, seems to be a difficult transition for all of us at times.  I was reading someone's blog recently, late at night, and found these words, which for me, summed up exactly what I'm going through:
... "feeling a bit uninspired, like I'm treading the same ground over and over while itching to try something new.  The challenge is this: anything new and different takes time, time to experiment and make mistakes and try again.  That means time away from [making the easy things]. But fear doesn't produce anything interesting and beautiful- one must be brave.  So I'm going to try to be brave, and make something new and thrilling to me and trust that it's the right thing to do even if it might seem impractical."   - Black-Eyed Susie

So well said! Susie makes makes amazing art dolls; please visit her blog.

So, I'm being brave, and going where I haven't gone before, on my way to who-knows-where.  Here is my newest baby step:

 Paradox, 8" x 8"

ingredients: Arches watercolor paper, acrylic ink, book pages, joss paper, image transfer, watercolor pencils, Caran D'Ache crayons, magazine cut-outs, acrylic gel medium

 This was also my first attempt at image transfer, and I couldn't believe it actually worked!  I used acrylic gel medium to transfer the Buddha image from a photocopy onto the collage.  I don't think I quite got all the paper off of it, but the transfer was starting to tear, so I left well enough alone.  I should probably also mention that the two areas that look white, near the Buddha's left shoulder and right of his head are in fact metallic silver, so it looks much better in person.  The scanner doesn't pick up metallic colors very well.

All in all, I consider this experiment a success, because I learned from it.  It's not easy to be brave in the dark, because you might bump into things- if you're lucky.

Pink

Other Stuff

I've been out of the blogger loop lately.  Please accept my apologies for not commenting on your posts (though I may have read them), and for not responding to comments you've made on mine.  I truly enjoy and appreciate each and every comment, and am so very happy that you come by to check out my ramblings!  I assure you that I don't mean to be rude, and it doesn't mean I don't love you all.  It's just that, well, I've been busy doing ... other stuff.

The end of the school year gets especially hectic for those of us who are teachers, and to be honest, our brains are pretty well fried by now.  If you're a middle school teacher, you can double the mental crispiness, and if you're an 8th-grade teacher, you can double that again, and if you're an 8th-grade teacher of kids with learning and behavioral disorders, well, you get the picture.

Some other "other stuff" I've been doing includes...

... working in my flower gardens,

                                                           ... helping to build a new deck,

 and, of course, going out to our home-away-from-home in the country, which we did yesterday.

Still working on the log cabin...

 There's been a huge amount of rain in Lewis County, and the Kinneyconnick has surged far over its banks, haphazardly rearranging the surrounding landscape.
 

For instance, our little rock beach, which you can see on the right side of this photo, is now gone...

 ... having been replaced by a big pile of sticks.

Parts of the island have been scoured clean of vegetation...

... while massive mountains of flotsam and jetsam have been deposited here and there.  (What's the difference between flotsam and jetsam, anyway?)

Luckily, we left just in time to catch...

... the annual Lewis County Tractor Ride,

which is basically where everyone gets on their tractors,

and rides around Lewis County.  Who says there's no entertainment in the country?

All of this stuff  +s  up to  < time for artwork or blogging, but I hope to get going again soon.  Aren't you impressed with my awesome math skills?

Memorial Day

Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am in a thousand winds that blow;

I am the softly falling snow.

 I am the gentle showers of rain;

I am the fields of ripening grain.

I am in the morning hush;

I am in the graceful rush

Of beautiful birds in circling flight,

I am the starshine of the night.

I am in the flowers that bloom,

I am in a quiet room.

I am the birds that sing,

I am in each lovely thing.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,

I am not there. I do not die.

Poem by Mary Frye, 1932.

 Photos of monuments were taken at Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Wishing you a blessed Memorial Day.

Better, Worse, or Just the Same?

In a recent post, I mentioned that I wasn't happy with the first of three pieces that I did for a client.  I had hoped to send her photos of at least three, so that she could choose one to go with two others she had already purchased.  So I added some plants on both sides, interrupting and covering most of that big horseshoe-shaped area on the bottom, which I felt was competing too much with the focal point.

       Is it better, worse, or just
              the same?







 Sometimes I debate with myself over whether I've actually improved the piece when I make changes like this.  Often I wonder if what I'm putting in is as good as what I'm taking out.  Was it better before?  Was it worth the risk of losing what I covered up?  At these times I hear the eye doctor's voice echoing in my head, "Is it better, worse, or just the same?"  Looking at an eye chart, though, the choice is usually far more obvious.

In life, as in art, the choices are not often so clear.  So, what do you do?  If we doubt all our choices too much, indecision can easily turn into paralysis.  The outcomes of this type of thinking are that you do nothing, which is a waste of your talent and precious time, or that you let circumstances and/or others make your decisions for you.  And believe me, you might not like the ones they make.

Of course, major life decisions are much more difficult to make than choosing what to glue onto a collage.  If you don't like what you've done to a piece of art, you can glue something else on, tear something off, paint over it, or cut it up and reuse the pieces.  If you make a bad choice in life, you have to live with it, literally.  For many of us, this thought is pretty scary.  Lately, I have found decision-making of any kind daunting.  For example, I'm seemingly unable to figure out what direction I want to take with my work.  This is not a life-or-death decision, so why is it giving me so much trouble? 

                                                                  photos by Colin Reusch

In his article, You Cannot Choose the Wrong Path, Stephen Mills writes, "You can’t possibly know what experiences you would have had if you had chosen differently.  Life is too contingent for that kind of after-the-fact-it-might-have-been obsessing."  He sheds more light on this subject in another post, Why You Should be More Decisive:
"When you spend too much time analyzing a decision, you are usually less satisfied with whatever decision you end up making.  People who consider more factors when making decisions are more likely to worry later that they didn’t make the right decisions.  So they agonize during the decision making process and then worry even after they’ve made a decision."  Yup, that's me.

I like the way Larry Crane puts it:  "Often, it is not the end action that creates the most fear; it is the decision to act or not act. Since life offers no guarantees and you would never know that your decision would be wrong until you have made it, then you might as well let go of all of your fear, take the risk, and decide. It is definitely better than keeping yourself in limbo. Although it is true that one wrong turn could get you seemingly lost, it could also be that such a turn could be an opportunity for an adventure, and even open more fantastic roads. It is all a matter of perspective. You have the choice between being a lost traveler or an accidental tourist of life. You have the choice to let go of your fear of deciding."

IT IS ALL A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE.   Can someone remind me of that every three seconds or so?

 OK, these are the three pieces I'm sending to my customer:

Transformation 41

 Transformation 42

Transformation 43

                                                           

That's my final answer.  I'm not phoning a friend.                       

Wordless Wednesday : Kentucky Wildflowers

                                                                                    wild dwarf iris

  

Transformation 43

 

 

Transformation 43

Ingredients: monotype scraps, Caran D'Ache crayons, watercolor pencils, acrylic gel, PVA glue.

This is the third of a set of pieces I'm working on for a client who has two others, but wants a third.   Now that I've finished this one, I realize I'm not satisfied with the first one.  Oh, well; back to the drawing board...

Don't forget to check out 

 

 Chapter 7