New abstract

Here are the first two steps in a new work I am doing for a class I am teaching at the end of February (25th and 26th) at the Studio in McHenry. We are going to do an 8 by 8 inch work on maisonite. It will be guided by me with the focal image being one of the 4 elements (from Greek philosophy), fire, water, air or earth (terra firma). These elements can be interpretted any way at all except that they must be collaged to the work, not hand drawn (simply because I want it that way :))) ).

I have a long way to go yet. This piece will be the fire element eventually. I have decided to use Talbot's method of adhering the papers (all altered by yours truly) because I much prefer his method. The same result can be achieved with good ol soft gel matte medium (at least if one is careful with gluing down papers). Often times I will cover my substrate with dress pattern paper just to lay some "paint" down and make the substrate my own. It is a psychological thing, I know, but it works for me. That way I am not staring at a blank surface. And who knows what may show through when finished. I just love a good surprise. It is hard to see in this scan but some of the pattern shows through the transparent paper in the upper right hand corner. I may or may not leave it that way. As it is for many artists, my process is intuitive and I keep working the piece until it tells me "enough." And it will eventually :) Hopefully this will be one of the works to go into my next gallery show. I will also depict the other three elements in due time.

k