Why a Brown Paper Grocery Bag?

That is a good question...Why a Brown Paper Grocery Bag? I was thinking this morning about this and my first response was because I can and my second response was what if that was all you had for substrate to work with.  In some place around this world art supplies are limited and heck even here lately.  I tear the sides and bottom off and tape the edges because my process does create some interesting mess on the edge of the work when I glaze.  By using this process it unifies the collage papers once they are tacked down. Darn I say Unity is a Principle of Design. 

I dug through some papers I had found under a pile of boxes in the studio...probably left over from a workshop. All this paper started with a brown paper grocery bag. Though the brown paper can alter the true color of acrylics on the surface with the brown natural colors I usually start with applying a gesso layer on the paper.  I have just used a thicker white piece of drawing paper too. But something about really creating it differently attracts me to the Brown Paper Bag. 

Not so sound so big but to state a fact that I've done this many times and I know about adding in contract, value and area for image transfers.  And when I show up for my time slot of making a Tack Down Tuesday piece on Monday afternoons I just grab some papers that I'm interested in or I latch on a manageable piece from a series I've got going on. The white area has a small image transfer of the definition of Journey on it.  This is fused on over the textured layer of white over other acrylics...stuff happens on the surface of collage papers that I create, part of the alchemy thing. 

Relying heavily on the understanding of design, placement and composition which is creating a movement of viewing.  I really never know what will be the result. Feeding off of each thing I do and responding in ways of Yes! I like that or No, that won't work here.  A practice of listening intuitively.  Though it doesn't mean every choice and every piece is going to end up amazing...they are all considered process pieces to the next one. And I get lucky every once in a while. 

Tape is taken off,  I'm very careful about not cutting through the brown bag, so I line the edges of the paper right with the white tape I used.  I know the white tape is pretty expensive so I do use a less expense blue, yellow or green painters tape, but I make sure it's delicate. Don't want to rip off a thin later of the brown bag...I normally use watercolor paper but as you can see I like to do it differently now and then. 

 This morning I had the piece on the kitchen table looking at it and studying it from a design sense.  More so seeing each part and how it relates.  First off the colors make me happy to work with and with the life now it feels so good to express happiness. I was thinking of boldness of color and the impact it has on us.  Call it seeing truth. Sometimes depending where our emotional gages are it might be too much, other times it might be just what we are needing to get excited about.  At this point I'm having to pull on new skills and old to muster through good changes for my online platform and it challenges my learning skills of comprehension and the stick to-it kind of stand with all to keep going at it.    

Back to observing the piece.... Though I look at the way the long vertical is off center and making it's way through the composition.  The line creates an asymmetrical composition and there is a visual weight difference from one side of the piece to the other. By setting this up I'm able to work in different colors and visual textures and patterns on the surface of the papers.  Playing with the sizes and shapes of the papers in the set colors allow for a trail of bread crumbs so to say to lead you around.  Red is a color so striking...I'm not one that likes to wear it but I do love to use it in my work.  I've also use the blue in solid form and with patterned shapes. And darn I say I've enjoyed make the paper with the black squares and now I'm enjoying the placement of that paper in this piece with their pattern just a bit off perfection, LOL.    So there's the vertical strong line dividing the sections and the horizontal areas now I look at the angle of movement the squares made with the stars...Working with an angle is always a challenge, one has to give it purpose in the design.  I work in different process stages at this point I decided to add red lines that continue up then guide you across to the other star. That's a Z composition on top of the Vertical and horizontal...Do I think of this when I'm creating yes and no....I'm always seeking the relationship of it all...some areas can be wide open other intense with deep words of visual shapes...etc.  

So spending some time with my piece I created yesterday and thinking of it's longevity, sometimes it has to last very long and with much protection over the art, mat and frame or if open many layers of varnish.  And then there are other times where there is little protection and you wonder how will I hang this?   Right now I'm not worried about that I just want to enjoy the process of making the Brown Bag Art...the paper on brown bags and the art.  I am trusting in that soon I will know why I'm really attracted to them as paper and a substrate.  It doesn't have to make sense all the way through allowing mystery to stay possible is a good place to be...uncertainty and unknowing of the end result isn't always bad...Hang in for something better is coming, Hope in a nutshell. 

Tuesday Tidbit Newsletter December 28th 2021