Can I get your help with my new art project, please?

Just to keep you informed, it is The End of June.

For me this means: son’s convocation from university, school year wrap-up (marking, project finishing, report card mark entering), grade 8 ‘farewell’, season-end dance show, yard work, camping-to-come, summer planning- so many things to do!  I’m also in the process of building a new website [to combine this blog and my artist website, http://www.CJMcKinnon.ca into one entity], trying to work on my new art project (more on that later), in the thick of legal stuff to do with changing ownership on the Land Title of my family’s lakefront cottage lot (see photo), our backyard needs an 80% redesign, and, and,…. life is full and busy and good.

New Art Project:

I have told you a bit about my new art project, the one I am working with Lindsay on. I went to her new studio to be creative and the two of us struck upon an idea…which led to a whole plethora of ideas! Since then we have both been in our own spaces, moodling around, experimenting, thinking, prepping.  The working title for our project is Containment . We each have a pile of containers, largely cigar tins & boxes, which we have been stripping, sanding, priming, adding paper to, figuring out what to put into them… think mixed media box/book hybrids with some amount of found objects… maybe.

As far as theme/concept, we have so many possibilities right now, too many. We are trusting that throughout the process we things will distill down and we will have better focus.

HERE’S WHERE YOU COME IN!

I want to collect ideas from you, from my Facebook friends and through email. Your answers will help me. Rest assured that your identity will remain anonymous. I have no need to attach names to answers, I just need honest, heartfelt answers. I will keep you appraised of how this project evolves and you never know, you may see your own words in my work! If you would, could you think on the following questions and then answer them for me?

What kinds of things do you/people keep secret? (positive or negative, literal or figurative)
What do you/people keep hidden? (positive or negative, literal or figurative)
What do you/people treasure? or, What do you consider to be a treasure/something to be treasured?
What do you have tucked away someplace safe to keep memories from fading?

Looking forward to your feedback!!
Carri

 

Studio Musings

Here I sit, in my studio, surrounded by my creative “stuff”.

I can see works from previous series, photographs of my family, a scratchboard work from high school, knick-knacks, stuffed animals, art supplies, books (many books), my melting clock (think Salvador Dali), my doumbek, my husband’s plants, and pieces from my newest experimentation.  I’m thinking that tomorrow I will try to spend most of the day in here. It is a good space [even though I resent the ‘real estate’ that M’s Norfolk Island Pine tree takes up].

I must move forward with my new idea. It started at my summer art retreat with a whimsical thought, “What if I put fancy ladies’ hats on realistic ravens?” The thought made me smile. Then I thought of lines from P.D. Eastman’s children’s book, Go, Dog, Go! “Hello. Hello! Do you like my hat? I do not. Good-by! Good-by.” And I was off!

One of my goals at retreat was to try some new techniques from a recently purchased art book, Art at the Speed of LIfe by Pam Carriker. I tend to buy wonderful art books, rejoice at their arrival, page through them and then put them away. I swore this time would be different. So, I made a list of specialized supplies I would need and got them just before leaving for retreat. I had 4 techniques flagged but was only able to squeeze in two: Redefining the Blank Canvas, p 15. and Creating Multiple Backgrounds, p. 21. They are both multilayered techniques for creating multiple backgrounds for future works. Here is what the finished backgrounds from the first method look like (see below). You may be able to see Mona Lisa in there, along with a leaf, lace, a tarot card, my handwriting, etc, etc. The final effect is pleasing but I think, should I do this again, I will streamline the process some. There were just too many steps for me. 🙂    I have also included a detail shot of the first work to come from this new idea. The raven is drawn in black grease pencil, the lettering is done with permanent marker.

So, should I be outside in the brisk autumn sunshine, raking the leaves, or should I be here in the studio? Probably both. But for now, I am in the studio, leaves be damned. I want to continue on this newest creative adventure.

Have a great day, all.
Carri

Detail shot of Ravens in Hats #1

One of the layered backgrounds I made this summer.

My nevermore Artworks

I promised to post one of my pieces from the nevermore series, so like Horton (Dr. Seuss reference), I am true to my word.

This piece is called silence unbroken . It is about 12 inches square and is a good piece to demonstrate the mixed media I worked with for that series. The base image is a segment of a photograph I took in colour then had printed onto artist grade paper in black and white. The paper is mounted onto 1/2″ plywood/birch veneer with artist acrylic medium. I added colour to and manipulated the peeling wood by accenting areas of light and shadow with prismacolor pencil crayons. The raven’s feather is drawn on Mylar with grease pencil, cut out and glued on. I copied the photograph of the little girl (actually my aunt who is about 82 now) onto a transparency sheet, cut her out and glued her on. The curtain is is not part of the photograph but is cheesecloth that I added to the surface. The viewer really has to look to see which elements of the composition are part of the flat photographic base image and which have been added to the surface. For example, the ropes hanging down are not 3-D at all yet they look like they are.

It occurs to me now that I should post another image from this show as most of the other pieces have these elements and some charcoal and watercolour paint work.

  Here is a second piece, psyche: through an ether of sighs. See what I mean by the vine charcoal work in the corners that gives the work a pin hole camera look? The blue out the window is watercolour paint. The image of ‘psyche’ is a photo (transparency) of my paternal grandmother when she was very young. The raven image is China Marker on Mylar, like the single feather in the previous image. Again, all of the colour you see in the walls, window frame etc. is done with pencil crayon.

There. Now I have given you a peek into my process for this series. What do you think?

By the way, most of the work from this show is available for purchase (except silence unbroken ). If you want to check out the whole series go to my website:  http://www.CJMcKinnon.ca

 

All for now,

Happy Canada Day!!
Carri