I’ve been looking for a new direction in my work over the past few months and have posted some of my ideas on the blog. Yet none of them have stayed with me as a path to follow–not the ideas for a dystopian card deck, nor the series on the heart. One thing I have been thinking of for years is to bring together the art works I’ve done during my life and create something new with them. I’ve done a little of that by making origami booklets out of some old prints. But recently I may have hit on something that holds promise for further work.
A few weeks ago, I began an acryl gouache painting from a line drawing I had made. The painting went through several stages but never felt skillful enough to me. Finally I decided to paint over most of the image in red and to paste parts of an old woodcut over the painting. Afterwards, I added more paint, mostly to the pieces of the woodcut. Below are some of the stages the work went through. I enjoyed the process and am now working on another piece. I am trying to draw together parts of my life with this process–the young artist and the elder.
Arts of May 