Jack of All Trades- A Finished Work.

I have three pieces I would like to start and finish before the 20th of May. Now that I have a space cleaned off on my table in my studio, I can finally get down to "business." I need to do something "artsy," as my cousin says, for my Aunt Mari's 90th birthday. OK so no problem right, HA. I decided to do a collage work ,about 11 by 14 in size, of family photos over three generations, from not only her immediate family, but mine, and another cousin's as well. So this is the work that absolutely needs to get done by the 20th of May and I have not even started! I did get a commissioned work done and although it is a minor piece (I had to work with this of photo of Jack), I am pleased with it. The third piece is for a challenge with the Midwest Collage Society.

This commissioned work is called Jack of all Trades and is a mixed media piece using Jonathan Talbot's methods. It is interesting how this piece came about. I was at a Dog Workshop at our local college. We listened to topics on holistic approaches to dog care, dietary concerns, animal communication etc... I had a small notebook ( the kind used to take notes in) and I had altered the front cover with a collage. The subject matter was greyhounds. Everyone who knows me is aware of my passion for the breed and that I have rescued two, soon to add a third. A friend that owns a locals pet store catering to holistic, organic, natural products, wanted one as well , but her breed is the Jack Russell Terrier. She gave me a picture of her departed "Jack." I did not know anything about the breed, so I researched it some and this is what I came up with. The work is done on 140 lb watercolor paper and is approximately 6 1/2 by 9 1/2. I could not bring myself to mount the work on a notebook so I copied the work and I will put that copy on the cover of the notebook and give her the original. I hope she likes it.

I have the pieces laid out for the collage challenge and hopefully I will get some time this weekend to assemble it. The challenge called for a spring abstract landscape in either a 4 by 6 or 8 by 10 format. I have already broken the rules...no big surprise, because I think the finished piece will be somewhere in-between those two dimensions.

k