How I spent my weekend

...in the studio, making cards. : )

  

Card making

Sometimes I wander repeatedly into my studio, pull out supplies, consider ideas, and make absolutely nothing. Writing comes easily to me but making art does not. I often feel blocked and uncertain. I'm still learning to just open up to the process and move forward even when I don't know where I'm going. This card was the result of forcing myself to stay in the chair at my studio table and push myself a bit. It incorporates bits and pieces from previous projects.

Art Journal

I don't know what I think of this.  It just is what it is, and I'm not even sure it's finished.

Broken Branch 

Art Journal

Copyright 2009 Veronica McCabe Deschambault. All rights reserved.

The conception of the idea for the houses took place last winter when I jotted down in my inspiration journal, "I could build houses with the words I don't say. I could fill rooms with all that remains unspoken and unexpressed."

The seed of the idea lay fallow. Was it the beginning of a poem? A blog post? A short story? A piece of art?

The background for this piece was created weeks ago when I experimented mixing acrylic paints with glazing medium and layering paint and stamped images on watercolor paper. I loved the effect and the intense colors, but I didn't have any idea what I'd do with the results.

And then at lunch today, I jotted a few more lines in my inspiration journal, "Home is where your art is."

When I finally went into the studio around 1:30 p.m., all these bits and pieces of ideas and materials began to connect, synchronize, and crystallize in unexpected ways.

It took the entire afternoon and then some to bring this piece into being, and now I'm basking in the creative afterglow. Cigarette anyone? ; )

Art Journal

The Dance

Remember a few weeks ago when I was painting swirls? One of those pages became the beginning of this piece. You can see it in the photo below. It's the blue page in the center.

Starting with that page, I layered a bit of gesso and stamped, sketched and colored additional layers on it. I cut the paper down and saw a suggestion of a misty forest behind the swirls. I enhanced the "forest" with classic drawing pencils, adding shadows and texture to make trees. Then I spotted distant mountains and water in a landscape and used my pencils to heighten that effect. Now I was being transported to a magical place infused with energy, light, and music--and Kokopelli belonged there, bringing life and art into creation. I embossed his image to give it weight and boldness, and envisioned the textured rectangle in the left of the composition as a door into another dimension.

June 3, 2009