Strung out and the antidote

Do you ever find yourself in the mood to scribble? What about drip and splatter? Well it doesn’t always end up making for a unified, let alone pleasing piece of art. But it always leads somewhere.

I thought I’d look at this recent mixed media Muse painting in pieces. This view turned out to be my favorite, because it illustrated the theme, which I didn’t realize until I wrote this:

Are you a bit strung out? Well yeah, aren’t we all. All bunched up together with our hair electrified, bleeding anxiety about climate and politics (impeachment?). Even  while we’re eating, we’re dreaming starvation And while comfortable in our homes, firestorms and earthquakes, hurricanes and tornadoes are breaking out in our brains. And we know there’s nothing much we can do now, too little too late…and the strings are knotting up and pulling on us and sometimes we can sort of ignore the discomfort and get on with lives of moving around in cars and on airplanes and discarding plastic and wasting food, and the knots keep getting tighter.. .

(More pieces of the painting here. . .)

Well, that’s one way of looking at what’s going on in our world. All quite true. But the artist has to be more agile, break it down, and look for other solutions.

Like the creature that appeared in Muse Group with an acrylic pour . I walked past it/him/her/them for weeks, until one day some words landed somewhere between my ears, and I was able to finish it, with great satisfaction.

So allow me to introduce the excessively silly and somewhat shy Grrrblop! antidote to despair.

A new six-week Muse Group starts Oct 7, and there is one opening left at this writing. I’m thinking we’ll do a “greatest hit” series of mixed media lessons. That’s the best antidote I can think of! If you’ve been thinking you’d like to come, don’t wait, cause we’d love to have you and the window is closing up fast. For more info and to contact me and register visit my website.

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Pouring a Volcano

acrylic inks in pouring medium on w/c paper, 10 X 11″

Poured acrylic paint brings to mind that streaming molten lava coming down volcanos in rivulets.  Working with it feels about as controllable as a volcanic eruption as well!  This was the first piece I was able to do without escaping rivers of acrylic running off the surface and pooling in unwanted areas.  A few drops of (each color) acrylic ink mixed with a generous amount of Liquitex pouring medium was poured onto the uncoated paper and tilted in different directions to get those interesting incidents. The colors were poured next to each other so that they “knit” together and then made spontaneous patterns. Each time a rivulet started I filled in the space with more of the fluid paint.  I can’t imagine trying to do this large without a retinue of helpers.

That’s what Jonas Gerard does.  He has a person at each corner of the large painting to help with the tilting while he pours.  It’s a fun video to watch.

Golden Paints has their own versions of pouring mediums:

Got my eye on you

acrylic pour using Liquitex Pouring Medium on w/c paper, 10 X 10″

This was my demo in the Monday group, but I didn’t paint it.  I mean I mixed and poured black, white and gold acrylics and moved the paper around so that the pigments could do their thing. And a few turns of the paper to discover which way was up. It took overnight to dry. That’s it. I think I’m hooked. A lot of acrylic pouring medium mixed with a few drops of paint and you’re good to go. It’s good for making acrylic “skins” too.

What’s with that eye up there, anyway?  It’s like the piece has an intelligence of its own. I haven’t written about it yet (a free write) and am almost afraid to!

Made From the Same Fabric

acrylic pour, collage on w/c paper, 10 X 11″

I lie among the others here, all from the same lot, same materials and construction, only damaged in unique ways.   

I find comfort in my belonging, yet cherish the markings of my singular woundedness. 

Our fabric has been pierced by the fingers of time, torn and even shredded, yet here we float in gentle repose.  Take heart. The movement of time heals all.

After a month break for the holidays the Muse Groups are back in action and my studio is vibrating with the extravagent creative energies of the folks who’ve been coming.  That helped me to finish this piece, which started out as my demo of pouring acrylics.

Using fluid acrylics, mixed first with matte medium to increase the flow, and pouring them in three parallel lines, I ran a stick through them (to create some marbling) while tilting the paper. Adding the torn picture – a print in my husband’s discard pile, helped to move the piece along to a finish.