Day 2 continued...

Naptime!

The gel medium dried so I decided to apply a warm white paint to the edges over the phonebook pages.

It didn't cover as well as I wanted so I did two coats. I used Americana craft paints for the whole thing. They dry faster, which I like, and have a matte finish. The canvas incidentally I used artist quality acrylics. Which I also like because of the quality difference but they are different to work with and take some getting used to. Which I'm still doing!

Here is the box with the letters laid out on it. They are not stuck down. It's too flat and needs something. I'm not sure what though. So it waits.

For the basswood frame I decided to use rubons over the phonebook paper. My grandma used to use a similar material on ceramics. Although her stuff may have been softer.

Here is the inside with just the brown rubbed on.

And here is a closer look at the inside after I finished. I did a brown first, and then put a copper metallic over that. Then I went back and did black around the farthest edge to create a little shadow for some depth.

And now it too waits for some inspiration!

While I was working on these I was thinking about how bits of the artist go into the work he or she creates. For me today it was the phonebook paper. It's from the area I live in. I chose pages from the section that contained businesses with the word home in their titles. While I was doing th rubons I also discovered there was the listing for Hooters! Not what I had planned but interesting. There were also churches with the word Hope in their name and schools (I used to be a teacher). I enjoyed connecting with the work in this way. And thinking about how bits and pieces of me go into what I create. I also don't listen to music or a tv while I'm working so I have a lot of space to think and ruminate. I've tried listening to the radio but it's just too much stimulation for me.