These past two months I have been working away on preparing for two upcoming shows that will be showing two different bodies of work my mixed media work and my landscapes. It’s been interesting switching between the two, but also nice. I can let things percolate in my brain about one while working on the other. I also installed my book art sculpture last week at Adkins Arboretum, but I still have to process all my photos from that day and will post about that later.
I’ve been really busy in the studio and I have not been writing here very much. I have to choose- make work or write. And while writing is part of my process, I really need to make.
I finished up this piece maybe two weeks ago. This piece has an interesting story. I made the basics of it several years ago. After a few years though I covered it up and made it into another piece. And while I liked the new piece, honestly I always regretted covering up the original. a few more years pass. Then a couple of months ago I decided to take the added layers off and started excavating. I think a part of it had been damaged, so I was just took it as a sign to take it apart. After much heating up and scraping and pulling off of this and that, I was able to pull the original layer off the substrate because it had originally been sewn pieces of cloth that I had adhered to the substrate. I had originally done a free form quilt like mixed media piece all those years ago and after all this time with layers of wax on it, it had become almost sculptural. I pinned up to my wall to keep it safe. I loved the rough, raw edges and the fragmented pieces.
After having it hang in my studio like that for several weeks while I worked on other projects, I decided that it had to stay that way. I worked on it and developed it a bit further and when I felt good about it, I attached it to a 2 inch deep substrate so that the piece will look like it is floating off the wall.
Excavating an older piece and resurrecting it into something else, something stronger – must be some kind of metaphor in there. But I need to get myself into the studio right now. So I’ll just leave it at that.
This piece will be included in my two person show with Caitlin Gill in November at Adkins Arboretum’s gallery.