Shipped and on their way to New Zealand

 Crow Can Series 4 x 4- Crow Can 1.
Collages on 140lb watercolor paper. I've created this series for the International Collage Exchange and Exhibit, with Dale Copeland out of New Zealand. This is the 15th and I had till March 20th to get my package to her place.  I actually had to ship it off in a box...

 As Crow 2. My watercolor paper was coated with a layer of polymer medium and all the papers I used were also. The first layer was book pages from a book I purchased at our local library, Moon Tide was the title of the book, it has larger print then normal books thought it was interesting.

 Big Crow 3. The next layer was some gestural line with a wax pastel crayons in a charcoal gray and white. I had to spray some fixative on there so it didn't smear. Then a layer of acrylic was applied happy to the surface.

 By Crow 4. After the smear of acrylic in Gray I let that dry and brought in the sew machine and did one zig-zag line, and then a straight stitch across the square. The thread was a cream color and I know it wouldn't stand out like I wanted...lazy and didn't want to change the bobbin and top thread so went with the cream, knowing fully that I would darken it with the charcoal gray acrylics. Which I brushed on and then subtracted off with a paper towel..if I used a baby wipe it would have taken to much of the acrylic off.

 Eve Crow 5. I applied the next layer of polymer because the plan was to introduce more collage papers to the surface to build up the layers. But first I used some Hot foil Silver which is applied with a tack iron, you need the heat and left marks of the silver here and there. The paper I used was tracing paper with the white lines made with a dowel rod-printed on and some wire and then I had drawing paper that was painted black.

 For Crow 6. As I'm going through these it's hard to remember every layer I added. But the secret is to integrating the layers like weaving them in. Giving the effect that it's hard to tell what layer was first. So at this time I used a brayer and some white and rolled acrylic on and in some areas I smudged back a bit and in other area it went on heavier and I also use a sheet of deli paper and folded it so it could be used to block off areas that I didn't want to have acrylics.  You see the white line running straight through the middle of this piece on the softened gray area..that's how it was done.

 He Crow 7.  At this point I brought back in the gestural line of the Wax pastel crayons, yes bringing to the surface again. Afterwards I needed to spray fixative and then coat with polymer again.

 In Crow 8. The image transfer letters were added with the tack iron, as I looked at the words in the back ground and see the letters I had to pick from my image transfer sheets, they came randomly.  The sheet of letters were made two years ago at One of a Kind Show I was in at the Merchandise Mart.  Never can be still had to do something. Practiced a little with lettering.

 

 Look Crow 9. Splatters of Black acrylics were added again in random spots.

 Mad Crow 10. White acrylics was added with a charge card cut to a smaller size and used to spread or make lines. I also used a skewer stick and made the small dots.

 She Crow 11. The word She seemed to go well with the words breast and swell.  At this point I added more black drawing paper and used a punch for the little figure, square and hearts. Working the elements on a smaller size then I added the white acrylics..sorry messed up on my layering and photo's..but I'm sure you get the point.

 Up Crow 12. I lastly added more silver hot foil to the areas which in the flat computer image is not showing up as I would like it.  The silver foil this time was applied with the edge of the tack iron so I could get thinner lines.

Crow Cut 13. The final pieces were cut to the size of 4 x 4 and I used a baby wipe to tone the color of charcoal gray on the edge of the watercolor paper so it doesn't stick out, then they were secured to a smaller piece of foam core and then mounted to a black mat board called Raven Black. The form core raised the small collage on the surface of the mat board presenting these little gems nicely.

All of 13 have been shipped out this past Tuesday and will be exchanged with other artists all over the world.  Dale Copeland has been offering this opportunity for artist and she's also found a place for the work to be part of  permanent collection Internationally. An amazing woman and very giving of her time.

My thoughts on this series was a practice on just doing and trusting the process and just having some good old fashion fun.  Letting go of being perfect and allowing the process to guide me. Usually I'm thinking in advance of where the piece is going, what show, will I sell it extra.. but these I didn't. I guess it is an experiment in making a mistake or making bad art. The experience of expectation is gone and the joy of creating steps up.  For some of us that have been creating as a business I think we all have to be reminded of the pure joy of just creating.  Can't help where it all goes but good to come back and let it rip on some fun projects. Now don't get me wrong it's good to care about the work but the fun of letting it happen is really so freeing. Letting go of expectation of being perfect and just enjoying the moment. And not that I think my work is perfect but the standards one likes to keep can add a bit of stress..so it's really nice to let your hair down so to say...