“Artists have no choice but to express their lives. They have only, and that not always, a choice of process.” Anne Truit in Daybook: The Journal of the Artist.
After some time away from the studio dealing with an “art slump” I have been working on a new project - the Warshawsky canvas commission. Gaining this commission and the ensuing excitment about designing a one-of-a-kind, original piece has apparently ended my art slump, at least for now.
This customer asked me to use plant materials from her property and to incorporate them into a unique canvas design - a fun and exciting project.
After several meetings and plant gathering expeditions I now have enough leaves picked and pressed to create a nice canvas. In this particular case, it was tricky because most of the plants on this couples rural wooded property were either too small in scale or were no longer pristine. I expect to use the Sasafrass leaves, which are large and graceful on a 24″ X 36 canvas in the allowed space.
This customer is also “open” to the idea of using “natural” found objects so I may be able to incorporate stones, shells, seadpods, sticks and twigs into this piece for some added interest.
My original thumb nail sketch and idea was to create a series of four narrow canvas’s to be viewed as one larger canvas but the client apparently did not want to invest that much into the work as well as space to hang the larger work was a major issue.
This week I began to make sheets of handmade paper, experimenting with several different fibers. It is always a bit of an experiment with the first batch and I must experiment over an over until I get the right combinations of fibers and colors.
SHEET ONE:
I worked with a base of unbleached abacca to which I added Oregon seaweed and kale and dried, uncooked dracea fibers (from Florida) to create a paper in a mid-range tone with flecks of tan and black for visual interest. Seaweed is the only fiber that gives me this unique green/black color. Even when soaked in soda ash and cooked, seaweed is very “hard” and difficult to blender to a fiberous effect.
After 20 some sheets of this paper is completed, I pla to use these taupe sheets as the canvas base with the lighter sheets as accents onto which I will adhere the leaves.
SHEET TWO:
I worked with a base of abacca, flax and hosta to which I added a lovely Hops ornamental sead pod is from the Chasmanthium species. According to Nancy J. Ondra, author of Grasses, this unique sead pod is a true “raceme” which is similar to a spike but the flowers are attached to the central axis by a short stem called a Pedicel.
This seed pod dries to an incredibly beautiful and delicate green bronze color and I am hoing that it will remain true to those colors once in the dried paper.
