Producing Again

My time as an artist without children is running out so I have really started to produce some artwork again.  This isn’t the only reason I have started new pieces.  I got some new maps from a friend and just found the colors to be great.  The picture above is the latest addition to my body of work.  Again, the colors I thought are just fantastic.  The map used in the piece is of Greece.  I love the green and pink together.  It is an older map, from the 1950′s I believe. 

I have found that not producing artwork is hard.  It calms me, keeps me focused and clears my head while I’m working.  Producing is a necessity for my happiness.  This most recent series of work has made it clear that the process is why I love to create.  The reason I say this is because there was a lot of steps to this piece.

I began by sewing into the paper by hand.  I went back to old doodles in my sketchbook and just found these organic shapes to be perfect for this new series so I started with them.  After sewing into the piece I found the map of Greece that my friend Mikey got for me and just fell in love with the colors so I cut up the map and drew a grid on top of the thread.  I measured the grid of the map and made the same grid on the paper.  Of course I did this somewhat backwards but I then added squares of the map to the grid.  Using the exacto knife is always fun for me becuase it takes time and makes me slow down to really look at what I am doing.

 After adding the map I began filling in some empty sqaures with watercolor.  I used watercolor pencils because I have really gotten used to using them and they are less expensive and easier to store.  After adding the watercolor I knew that it needed something so I started thinking about pulling the road off the surface.  I had some balsam wood scraps around and decided to put the roads on that so it would connect some of the space without maps to the spaces with maps.  I needed the eye to flow better so that was my solution.  After I spend time on that I decided that making more levels can make the piece a bit more complicated without losing the color or the sewing.  Again, I used balsam wood and started raising some pieces of the surface high, some low and others leaving directly on the surface. 

The whole piece is mounted on a wood board so it makes it sturdy and a lot easier to hang.  I’m still debating another layer of some sort but I might sit on it a while.  In the meantime I have two other pieces going and have another working in my head so I will probably start that this weekend.  I will definitely keep you posted on the new work and progress.  Also, keep checking back because I hope to have a show this spring.

Thanks for visiting and let me know what you think on the new work…I would greatly appreciate the feedback, good or bad.

Don’t forget to check out my Etsy store too…I just added sketchbooks and more jewelry.