fun, fun, fun

Lots to catch up with. I'll start with the classes I took this weekend. (I'll finish with them too. It's getting late and I do have to go to work tomorrow.) Lynne Perella -- author of Alphabetica, True Colors, and Artists' Journals and Sketchbooks -- was doing two classes sponsored by The Ink Pad in Manhattan. So I signed up for both, and even though each class focused on the same technique, I was very glad I did. I am very poky in my art making, slow to get an idea, slow to commit to an idea, slow to work on the idea, slow to finish. So, having taken the Saturday class, I was better prepared for what I needed to do, and how to pace myself for Sunday. I'm pleased to announce: I Finished Something. And I finished it in the time allotted. Holy Mother of God, I hope no one expects this to be any kind of precedent.
But I digress. Lynne teaches her method of making highly textured, multileveled backgrounds/midgrounds, and then incorporating onto these surfaces a top layer of altered images based on photocopies. On Saturday the theme was Asia; on Sunday, Medieval. Lynne is a fabulous teacher -- she teaches her method and then coaches each student to deploy it to express her own way. Every piece produced each day was highly individualistic. I think this is a wonderful thing in a teacher. So Saturday I got my highly textured background done and, because I rarely get further than making a highly textured background in any mixed-media class I have taken, I am getting quite good at these backgrounds. I fell way short, however, on the altered image front, but Lynne suggested making a large drawing of one of the images, using it as a mask, and painting around it. This is the other amazing thing about this generous woman -- overflowing with terrific, achievable, spot-on ideas.

(detail: Cranes)

Still, I was frustrated and disappointed that I didn't get the collage part done. Because the base painting is 30 inches x 30 inches (almost three times bigger than my usual format! yikes!), I decided to make honking-big photocopies to use on Sunday. This was a good decision. I finished just in the nick of time, but I finished.
One option for the finished piece is to fold it to form a book. Most folks decided to do that (me, too) but some left their work open and flat as a painting, and Lynne suggested that my medieval piece might also work as panels. I don't know what a four-unit piece would be called -- a double diptych? -- but I wanted a book. Clumsily photographed, it looks like this.

Flat, folded, and cut (details from the Unicorn tapestries at the Cloisters): Inside pages
(we were encouraged not to be concerned about images appearing upside down, or sideways, or in partial views) Front cover (folded):

I have had in mind a project using the format of currency (banknotes, paper money) to celebrate various women. I think this process will let me start that project. And soon.

Meanwhile, gentle readers, if you EVER have a chance to take a class with Lynne Perella, do whatever is necessary to be there.