This is something which came about purely by accident. I was working on a canvas and wanted to lift some of the paint I had placed there directly from the bottle. I had this piece of 300lb/640gsm watercolor paper which was the exact same size as the canvas, so I grabbed it and did a frottage. This is what came out on the paper. I have been so mesmerized with it I have not done another thing. It is not as though I think it is complete, but I cannot get past the way it appears now. There is so much to look and see on this piece.This brings me to the work Andrea is doing at the moment with cropping and seeing her work in a new light. You need to go to her blog and read the last several entries to understand fully what has been happening in her studio lately.
I think I love this so much because there is so much to see here. I have an issue, though. I don't want to cut up this piece. I can work with the image on the computer to do some cropping and become inspired by the various parts, but what to do with this piece? It is far too busy, I am thinking, to stand alone. At the same time, I am not eager to touch it. Maybe it needs to go onto the wall of possibilities until I grow tired of looking at it for whatever reason...or go blind...which ever comes first! :) It makes me think of a line I read in the book, 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women by Gail McMeekin:
There is no way to push the river; equally you cannot hasten the harvest.
I thought this said a great deal about needing to be patient with this bit. So what do you do when you have created something you cannot stop looking at, but you know it also is not complete? What do you think I should do here? As you can imagine, I am eager for advice!
I wish for everyone a Delightful Monday!
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There must be something in the air or the water...I have the same situation in that I started a painting and had to stop now I keep looking and as you, I know it isn't done but I am unwilling to make changes to it as it will change it all?! I do know I will put it aside for awhile. Good luck!I'm heading over to Andrea's site.
oh Kim--this is the story of my life lol! I have so many things on the go for that exact reason-- there is something cool going on-- but I don't quite know where to go with it. Usually they hang out on my wall until I get over it-- or am feeling brave lol or I need a canvas and decide it can be sacrificed finally to my next 'great' experiment lol! this piece has great movement! I do this frottage thing alot too-- i just think of it as printing lol! namaste Elis.
Oh Don't Say It Mary Ann! I can't keep treading water like this...eeek! I never, ever just it a surface once and love it. It has never happened that way...that is, until now!
I wish you luck, too...maybe Andrea's solution can help you out!
Love,
Kim
Well, Elis, if it happens to you all the time I suppose it is not all that unusual. At least I can say it is the 'wall of hope' rather than the 'corner of shame'! LOL I suppose as you, I will keep looking at it until something happens, though. I know what makes me understand it is not complete...there is not any focus to it...but I am still not willing to mess it up right now. :)
You know, Fiona Long is the one who told me this was called frottage...of course I don't accomplish it with graphite and textured surface (and this is not the blog to talk about the other defination). It is like printing, but with canvas rather than glass.
Thanks Elis... I will let you know if I get this figured out.
Love,
Kim
Well, it has to go on your wall of possibilites, of course!
It IS in your signature color field,,,,with so much to explore going on in it. I'm thinking that when you least expect it, a plan will appear.
That's what usually happens for me, anyway.
I like to call these prints 'monotypes',,which they also are, as that 'other definition' that you mention is not one we'd want to visualize.
I've seen the work at Andrea's,,and she's creating some really cool pieces.
Oh god, I don't know, I would be honging it and looking for a while too :)
Ha Ha Babs, I find I have to begin with those colors to move a canvas forward. Sometimes they stay in that range, but I have some new colors which have also been finding their way in lately. :) So on the wall it will stay!
I could call this a monoprint, but it wasn't the only rubbing I took from that canvas at that time...the others were with plastic sheeting and I use that in a different way which I will be sharing some later on.
I have learned to leave some definations alone...what words mean in one language is not what they mean in another...even English isn't always English.
Thanks Babs!
Love,
Kim
Awe come on, Michelle! You have all that awesome stuff over on your blog and can't help me out here? :) Just kidding with you!
I am perplexed, though. If you could imagine the number of faces I have been seeing in this thing...I wonder if they are ghosts?
Oh well, if you have some thoughts, please let me know!
Love,
Kim
Kim, I think this is looking gorgeous with those blues and purples and the textures. I would hang this on the wall where I could see it when you first wake up and look at it in different lights for inspiration. That's what I do when I love one I'm working on but waiting to see where to go with it. I love the way this one is looking!!
you just look at it for a long time then you know it.
i saw Andrea's work...wow...
I think this is just gorgeous and fascinating just as it is. It shimmers like light on water. I keep things around for ages, unfinished. Just waiitng for what it needs to rise up. Sometimes it never does. But that's okay.
Kim, I feel the same thing, looking at this piece! Which is so busy and moving, but seems at harmony with the white page under it, somehow. I guess I would do exactly what you thing of doing, put it onto the wall of possibilites. And perhaps, who knows, with more glazing and other things (have you already tried the inverse procedure i.e. put ink upon acrylics?) it will find an apropriate background, or something it can "settle" on and which will give it peace?...Just thoughts. Love those procedures and accidents and then thinking about them and trying to give them an honorable place:)
love
Andrea
Hello Lynette,
Thank you so much for your encouragement. This one really hit me with a bang. I can be very economical with my work, so overworking something does not always happen. I actually have a bit of the opposite issue.
I know there is more needed, but...
Okay, I am going to do this...every day look and stare in different lights, from different angles, etc. I will see what I might come up with.
I will let you know!
Thanks Lynette,
Love,
Kim
Hi Yvette,
Andrea's work is pretty amazing, isn't it? I love how her current body of work is turning out.
Yes, I just need to have more patience, I think! :)
Thanks Yvette,
Love,
Kim
Thank you, Sweet Suki! You always know the right words!
You know, you are right it doesn't matter what happens with this...if it stays around as inspiration then that is what the purpose was in it being created. Keep reminding me.
Love,
Kim
Hello Andrea,
I adore your thoughts here. I have not done a thing to this except allow it to dry once I pulled it off the canvas. There is nothing there except the acrylic paint on the watercolor paper.
I also keep thinking 'ink', but I am just not sure how to progress with the ink, either. I probably do need to think of glazing to tone down the starkness...subtle, but something to bring a tightening and focus to the piece...something to unite it. At this point, it is more like shattered glass...maybe that isn't a bad thing, though. Mmmm, so much to think about.
Thanks for your insights...if you have more, I am very interested.
Love,
Kim
Such loveliness you show us here.
Thanks.
Thank you, Lynn...that means a great deal from you!
Love,
Kim
Hey Kim,
This is great! I can see why you're excited by it!
I have this dilemna all the time! it's so hard! I agree with your idea of leaving it for a while. I find this tends to help...eventually! Once I've got over the heartbreak I tend to use paintings (which were nearly there but not quite enough to stand on their own) as backgrounds for something else. Or i put a coloured glaze over them and then work into an area of it, leaving some of the original thing that I loved intact. It takes time for me to be able to bring myself to do this though. I'm usually pleased that i pushed something further...but not always!
Thanks Sweet Fiona,
You know the thing is it just keeps jerking on me here. I think the idea of the colored glaze keeps returning to me with a few of the areas left untouched, as you say. In my head, that will kind of unify it all. Then comes the challenge of making a decision about the area to settle the eye...which I know now is the issue. Maybe you are right, though, if the glazing is worked properly it will be just strong enough to be directive, yet subtle enough to not slam the origional.
Yes, I need to sit with it longer and let the faces continue to pop out at me!
At this point, I don't have any choice...I know this can't stand as it is. I just have to have the patience with it to figure out what it is telling me.
Thanks Fiona...this is helping a lot here.
Love,
Kim
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