background

Friday, March 5, 2010

Altered for a Perfect Fit

I stayed up late last nite....my first time in over a week that I got to work on something artsy.....long overdue, and sooooooo satisfying! I finished one project and loved it so much, I started and finished another! I never am able to do that! Mainly, it's cuz I usually work on 9x12 inch or larger pieces, that end up requiring large chunks of time, layer upon layer of washes and detail and the proper mood to sit down and work on the same thing I've been painting for sometimes, months! I mentioned and displayed some altered pages on a former post.....which I thoroughly enjoyed and wanted to explore further, thanks to Sheree at Raven Moon Magic. She was not only kind enough to give me the idea, but to give me helpful hints and feedback! So armed with a new larger paperback with thicker pages and hidden messages to reveal, I began the journey of uncovering Secret Truths!

Well, my obsession with coffee could definately be called a Truth.....but it's certainly no Secret!

So, it just started as a simple message about the ritual of coffee drinking. The circled words read, "Morning constant, next day the same, survivalism" I can see by your nodding head, that you understand and appreciate this statement. :)



But as I continued exploring the aspects of the page and finding random bits of info on coffee drinking on my hunt through magazine pages..... I found something interesting...something that makes my multiple cup habit good...even HEALTHY for me! Imagine that! There were articles about it reducing risks of endometrial cancer, making your muscles feel less sore when you drink some Joe before exercising....but my favorite....and the point that drives the whole page home is featured above. It says..and I quote *clearing throat* "people who reported drinking 3 to 5 cups of coffee daily were 65% less likely to develop dementia compared with those who drank 2 cups or less."


It's not even saying drink some coffee....it saying drink lots of coffee! Now that's my kind of study...I feel vindicated...haha. So happens this torn out page was the start of Chapter Five and I added 5 "coffee" rings. The image in the center is a hand-carved stamp I made years ago. Hope this tickles your craziness for the brew as much as it did mine....I celebrated it's completion with a cup!




Then I matted it and started a new page.



Within this page's text, I saw something serene....something universal. The circled words read, "Gentle whispering, shady green, it was everything." The first thing I imagined was a tree....but more than that, I wanted to convey how this tree...this spot in time is everything...right now. How our experiences, while uniquely ours, are not the only ones occuring at any given moment....how one second, one thought , one tree, one word, one glance...can be everything to lots of different someones at one time.



We are so lucky to be able to revisit those "Everything" times whenever we want...in our minds and in our hearts.



I've found that adhereing the page to a sheet of watercolor paper allows me to flow over the edges and helps keep the integrity of the soft page. I used black and white ink to highlight details of the animals and such...


I also used some of my irridescent watercolors in the tree and grass to give it some shimmer....





I'm looking forward to doing more of these fun pages. I get to relax a bit and not be so hung up on details. They're also so much quicker, and therefore, I'm able to get something done in one sitting for once!





Please have a wonderful weekend! I hope to be back on Monday with pics from Artwalk!


Off to have another cup of coffee!

8 comments:

Raven Moon Magic said...

You are so right about relaxing and not being hung up on details. This is the most satisfying art work I have ever done.
Im loving the colour your using and adding other media looks so fun. and your explanations of your work are so amazing, i have just been asked by a blogger if i can write about why i do things more woops!
Keep up the amazing work and Yay for the facts on coffee, im sure its going to taste sooo much better now!

sheree xxx

Kathleen said...

hehe - Love the 'coffee' - must share that with some of my coffee drinkin' buds *winks*

Anonymous said...

lets do a series of these for next months artwalk. I love them, the idea, the artwork and the execution. It's really good Cameron. This is really good.

G2 said...

Are you interested in selling "Crazy Coffee"?

Cameron said...

I actually was planning to offer "Coffee Crazy" for sale at the Art Walk this Friday.... but if you'd like it G2, it's yours. It is matted to fit in an 11x14 frame and is only $50.00. Please let me know if you're still interested before Friday and I'll list it in my boutique for you to purchase :)

Thank you for inquiring...it always makes me so happy to have something I've made call to someone...of course, who doesn't hear coffee calling to them on a regular basis anyway....haha!

XO, Cam

G2 said...

"Coffee Crazy" that is what I meant to say... sorry.

Coffee is part of my daily "ritual" and it would be great to add this piece to my coffee shrine.

Is there any chance you've done any pieces in this medium or any other with a Spanish guitar/Flamenco dancer? I'd be interested in something along that line as well.

Ole!

Cameron said...

I'll put "Coffee" in my boutique for you. Thank you! Just go to the sidebar on right and click on picture of the sea glass hair clip!

I wish I could say that I have another piece for you to add to your collection, but alas, I haven't done anything in that genre yet....I appreciate you asking, though :) We artists all seem to have pieces stashed away here and there.

I'll talk to you again soon! Thanks so much!
Cam

Diane said...

Hi Cameron! Thanks for steering me over to this post, as I go for my first cup of coffee this morning :) I love this whole process with the book pages on both of these pieces--I like the idea of randomly putting down some text without reading it and then making your art from certain words that you find in the text--thank you for this spark!
And thank you for your well wishes for Leo. Yesterday was a very bad day for him, and I don't think that he's going to improve--I think he's shutting down--I've never gone through this before with a pet, and he's such a sweetie too. I checked on him this morning and he's just in his tank looking at me--like he's saying to me --don't give up--what a nightmare :-(

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...