From this
To this
Collaged in music and people then some proper fingerpainting.
Real, visceral, icky fingerpainting. You want to play now too, don’t you?
The whole process reminds me of weaving: layers show through in places. In and out. Each one adds.
Collage, colour, paint & words. That’s all.
As always (to me) the beauty’s in the details…………………….
This week started out, as they invariably do, with no plan, no ideas, just some scraps and a blank(ish) page.
I began with tissue paper. I love the semi-translucent. If you get the right stuff (usually cheap craft tissue) the dye runs beautifully and makes for water-colour kinda effect as soon as it comes in contact with water or glue or hands or pretty much anything. I think this must have been something more fancy, probably saved from gift wrap. (shame)
Anyhoo, it was the usual build up of layers…
There are bits of torn all sorts of paper in there now. I keep the box of scraps for recycling under my work table. There are bits from there. What the bits are don’t matter so much, it’s more just to let some shapes begin to develop.
And then the painting…. more layers
Just playing with the shapes
And there we have it.
Reach Out and You will Shine
Close up, week 29 looked like this…
A lot of layers, a lot of buried words. A lot of rich, warm colour
Did you see the face?
This week was full of colour.
Dabs and daubs.
Layer on layer on layer on layer on layer…
Eyes and spirals and circles and more…
Building up over and over and over and more and deeper and lusher and more.
That’s the sorta week it was.
Every week I create something.
Some weeks I create more.
In fact – most days I create loads – but in terms of the tangible, the painty reality, every week of this year I am creating at least one something: One page of One book of One year
I’m over half way in now, and I’m detecting more and more patterns all the time, every one a metaphor for the unfolding times in which they’re made:
Some weeks start on the first day and incrementally develop a little at a time.
Some weeks are a flurry of fervour, forced into focus in a short few days: blurting out in totality at the start, or squished up against the finishing hours.
They all reflect some underlying aspects, some current cares and the modality of the moment:
Words and feelings ooze in and out.. You might not hear them, but we both know they are there.
Weaving in the elements: internal and external.
There’s what rests on the surface, and there’s so much more.
The surface reflects to you what you project out.
For everyone it’s something personal and new.
Each page, each week, each is contained within a season of interest with the cast of supporting characters who meander about and around my days. These recent weeks have been populated by some images that I printed more than I needed for a project I’ve since finished. Smiling, familiar faces from within the framework that structures these times. Left over faces smile out of these times.
Here from the perspective of a photo I see all that I’d like to do to ‘finish’ the image. But that week has passed so it’s another that I’ll leave as it is, almost ready, a little soft in the middle and a bit raw in places. It’s all ok.
Time pushes on, I’m over the other side of this one now.
Everything begins with an idea. Everything.
See the little tiny bits of neon pink in there? That’s the idea that set this page running. I saw this colour in the art shop forever-ago. I’m not a pinky kinda person but I had a really visceral attraction to this particularly teeth-jangling shade, and it was in my head until I had to buy it last week.
It’s a colour that says Bite Me.
If I was in charge of naming paint colours it would be called Don’tFuckAbout Pink. Then for some reason that wouldn’t be allowed. So I’d call it BiteMe Pink. Then I’d get a job someplace else cos I can’t tolerate that level of being told what I can’t say, or what I can’t call colours.
But I digress….
Thing is, I didn’t know what this page would draw out of me. All I knew was it was going to be powerful, virtue of is starting out as these three modest shouts of BiteMe Pink.
Even under all this noise, they can still be heard.
And it was a cacophonous week.
The weekend in the middle (my weeks begin on a Thursday, remember? please keep up) consisted of more than my usual level of soul searching at a creativity workshop. Meeting with extraordinary minds and beautiful souls. Deeply spirit rattling. Still feeling the ripples now. And breathe….
This week concluded the first half of the year.
And this week concluded with a big fat full moon
And the hottest day of the year,
And a literal fullmoon meltdown.
It was monuMENTAL
As illustrated by the many layered frenetic scribbles.
Coalescing finally, as this….
“Be Real ~ Be Awake ~ Be Present ~ Be Now”
Just sometimes I can’t settle and be at peace with a painting.
It’s out there somewhere, or tucked away in a book, and it’s niggling me.
It’s cropping up in my thoughts and interfering in my whatever’s-happening-next-ness.
Last week’s page of the page-a-week project was one of them.
Look, here she is. She looks mis-coloured.
What’s a page with no yellow? No warmth?
No.
Where’s her depth? Can’t leave her cold like this.
Bring on the warm tones!
(I’m happy now!)
25/52: It’s Palindrome Week!
And it’s pushed me into a different colour zone.
I’m new here, I haven’t visited this array of bluegreens and reddypinks before
The streaks of white are new as well. The collage continues, I can’t see that ending any time soon.
Rising up, looking forward…
Something of a Tribal Phoenix
amid musical mishmash. Here we go……..
“To see patterns is to understand.”
Do you know Jason Silva?
He’s media artist, futurist, philosopher,
he’s a ball of frenetic energy and enthusiasm and with a magnificent mastery of descriptive language he spills this energy out into the internet in Shots of Awe.
I like Jason Silva a LOT.
I was listening to him talking with Tim Ferris while I made the most part of this page.
I’ve been tired
Weary and lacklustre, and it’s shown in how much time I’ve spent in this book.
So this week was a mindful meditation on the mantra in my mind
Written in resist, repeating…
Release, Recuperate,
Recover, Rest
Be well, my friends X
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