Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Shapes and Texture -- an abstract art piece

Here is my newest and latest art work. And geez -- I'm thinkin' it's about darn time!!! I've been out of the "art loop" for far too long, much to my surprise. I was on a roll there for awhile, and feeling really good about that. And then....the bottom dropped out, and I dropped out, which totally blind-sided me. I guess that brought me up short, and taught me that as it goes with life in general, it can go with life as an artist. What bothers me the most is that I've let my blog go, and have hardly posted in almost two months. Yes indeed, that really bothers me. I feel badly about that, and just hope those of you who visit my blog can forgive me.

Okay, so now, onto the present, and this new piece. When I sat down today to make art, I felt lost and unfocused, not having any remote idea what I wanted to do or make. Sooo, I just jumped in, somewhat half-heartedly, not expecting much at all. And ended up trying something new, regarding the theme of "SHAPES", what I consider very abstract. Not that I don't do abstract art, or at least to some extent, but today I was so bereft of any specific ideas or direction, it seems all I could do was pull out a few of my paper punches and my old standby, frozen pizza cardboard.

This piece, by the way, is an 8x10. The base is also frozen pizza cardboard, and this size format is new to me, a larger format for me. Most of my work has been done on 5x5 art squared, or else 4x6 postcard size. Recently, I ventured out of my comfort zone and worked on 5x7 format a few times. Which gave me courage to expand beyond that, to this 8x10 format. Perhaps the size of the format doesn't matter that much, I don't know for sure. Then again, I think it's good to try new and different things and ways of doing art. I think I felt, with this larger format, I could include more on this piece. And since I had no idea what I wanted to include, or do artwise, it gave me more latitude and flexibility.

I also want to mention that this time around, with a larger format with the base being frozen pizza cardboard, I chose to glue, (with gel medium) two pieces of pizza cardboard together for a sturdier base, hoping that it wouldn't warp. And thankfully, that was a good idea and it didn't warp.

Okay, so I punched out various shapes from pizza cardboard, and glued them down onto the base with glue stick. Ahh yes, trusty ol' glue stick, which is a great adhesive. Sometimes I forget how well it works, and that it never warps. After that, I used fuschia tissue paper, crumpled up and glued down with matte Mod Podge. Another old standby of mine, that I use quite often. Then I crumpled up some yellow tissue paper, and tore it, and glued that down with matte MP. Then I pulled out my brown shoe polish, and rubbed that over the whole piece. To accentuate the texture, and tone down the tissue paper, and give it more of a "vintage" effect. The brown shoe polish is something I use a lot, more and more recently, in my art.

Then I painted on gel medium, rather thickly, in different directions, for more texture. When that dried, I rubbed brown shoe polish over the whole piece again. And then I rubbed gold art wax over the whole piece. Then wrote the text on with a black permanent marker pen. Then I sealed the piece with Acrylic Floor Finish (AFF), which can be bought at Family Dollar stores. It has a satin (not gloss) finish effect, as opposed to Future Floor Finish (FFF), which does have a gloss finish effect.

I scanned this on my computer, and unfortunately the color isn't totally true. In the real piece the gold and the texture shows up much better. I am happy with how the shapes showed up in this piece, on the scan. And I'm also very happy that I made some new art today, and tried something new, and just played around with a new idea. On days like today, when I desire to make art, feel compelled to make art, and yet feel lost and unable to focus or decide what to do, I generally tend to do something new and different, or at least somewhat different.

So anyway, that's what I did today, and so here it is. Regarding "abstract" art, it does appeal to me, I must admit. I'm not sure if that's a cop out, or a good thing, or whatever. Some days, just making any art at all is difficult, and a challenge. On those days, if I can accomplish making art, I feel good.


15 comments:

Unknown said...

Welcome Back. I love what you have done and will keep checking back.
Ophelia
www.opheliasart.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

Lovely piece! But then I do have a great fondness for abstracts! Take care!!!

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed looking at your art and I'm glad you are back at it!

Sharon House said...

Once again... some super texture Val! I think we'll christen you the Texture Gal..(SMILE)

Nice work Val... sure do enjoy checking out your work... it's fabulous.

Sharon
http://www.mystoryart.com

nancy said...

So gald to see some new work! This is really fabulous. The shapes look indented rather than raised. Is that just my eye?
I love the next one on "nature", too. Very much.
Nancy

One Creative Queen said...

Beautiful! You may have been out of the art loop for awhile (happens to me way too often!) but you can't tell by looking at this piece. It's wonderful - wish I could sit down and half-heartedly begin, ending up with something like that! Love it!

Katherine :)

The Tattered Rose said...

I admire how very texturey you can get a piece. I would love to examine this one in person. Glad your muse is off vacation.

Carol said...

Hia Val, so nice to hear from you. Hope you are feeling better, I have been in a slump too. I love how rich this piece looks, wel done you.

Marilyn said...

Let's hear it for the frozen pizza box!! I've been told and tried it as well, that if you apply a layer of gesso (clear is fine) on the back of cardboard it will keep it from warping. Love your monologue and your blog!

Faye said...

Val, this definitely has the WOW!!! factor. I love all the texture and am wondering about the shoe polish. Is it paste polish you are working with? If you can, email me on the CPA yahoo group. I think I'm listed as powhatanfisherlady.

Anonymous said...

Welcome back Val! Like you I've been away from my blog too.

Your piece is great! In a good way..it reminds me of pizza! Maybe is't the color or the texture..maybe because I know you used pieces of the pizza box,,and you know the power of suggestion. : )
Judy K

Karen Campbell said...

This is a really neat piece, Val! I started a junk mail journal and have my own pizza cardboard reserved for one of my pages ... thanks for the inspiration!

Unknown said...

Well I know how you feel about being out of the loop... but wham bam you came back BIG! I love this, it is fabulous and I love that you created it with the pizza base, the boot polish and floor stuff how cool is that... way to go xxx

Linda Jo said...

Good to see you making art!!! Very interesting!!!

marieJ' said...

Val,fabulous work...
love the way you recycle pizza bases...

marieJ'