Working my way through my first large work of 2025: A work depicting connected houses.
The composition puts these houses in perspective in a representational way.
But they are symbolic, not realistic. Each house will be a little “off.”
Once all the parts are together, I am hoping for a dream-and-memory emotional tone.
To begin, I’ m working on the background. Where will these houses be – in what environment?
A fairytale forest.
I’ll be creating the trees as monotype prints, using tree stencils I have used many times before. (I cut my own stencils. When you print with acrylic paints, they get stronger with each use, a little coating of acrylic added with every hit on the plate.) These trees are like old friends.
Ready to print: my gelatin plate on the worktable.
In the middle of the print session: things get messy.
Pulling a printed piece of fabric. (This is a piece of opaque cotton fabric.)
I also printed some on sheer polyester to get a more ethereal look.
I created one tall panel with the tree image duplicated for a vertical format. This will be an area off to the right of the houses, and the little girl character will be superimposed on these trees. (Haven’t figured out exactly how to do that yet.)
The whole composition is already drawn on my muslin substrate, and now I’m collaging the trees into place.
After the matte medium – which is what I’m using for glue – is dry, I’ll quilt each tree background section, then proceed onto building the houses.
At this stage things are a little disjointed. It’s awkward looking. But I keep referring to my compositional sketch with all the parts together, so I can keep my eye on where I’m going.
Step by step.
. . . . . . .
Sharing a thought: Tomorrow in America will be a strange and ironic juxtaposition of events: the federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King and the inauguration of Donald Trump, and all that he represents. Words for this day:
“Our lives begin to end
the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
. . . . . . . .
For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating
Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
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