Working intuitively. I love working this way. No concrete idea of where I am going with a piece. That is not to say I do not have an "idea" of what I am going to create, but rather laying out pieces before starting and letting those pieces speak to me. A direction. That is a good start.
I will say that many more times than not, those elements I chose may not make it into my finished piece. Again, it is allowing that inner voice say "let's not go there, let's go here".
This piece started back last summer when I found this really cool, old tray at a garage sale. One of those items I had no idea what I was going to do with it, yet I had to have it. A small price for my easy to please palette.
Over the fall and then the winter months in Minnesota, life can become dreary and somewhat cumbersome, it was tucked away with my other myriad of stuff I found at garage sales, flea markets, estate sales etc....not forgotten, just put on the back burner because of other experiences that take the front burner of importance in usual life. Below is the wood substrate with me "gathering" a few ideas for the piece.
By the time I brought this sad and somewhat forgotten "tray" back to the front burner, it was in the later months of winter. Being a very harsh winter in Minnesota this past season I was somewhat depressed and needed some nature that inspired me. The first thing I thought of was birds.
I have all winter been making sure the birds are fed outside with the feeders we have out for them. Heck, they have called our home their home under our deck. I had to make sure they had food to sustain. It has become a very positive in my life in the dreary months of winter. Knowing we are feeding them and keeping sheltered. Alas, my outdoor babies :))). Yes I know it sounds crazy but I have been called worse so I can accept this.
So I rounded up some inspirational elements like old tea bags that I painted a bird out of pan pastel and pencil, handmade rusted papers, old book parts, rusty metal, rusty wire, fabrics, twine, eggshells, beads, an old music roll, sticks, and many more elements I have kept in my stash for eons.
What I created surprised me at first. After looking at this piece I did not realize at the time, but I incorporated a "story". An emotion that was speaking to me. I just let it in, I just let it happen.
I started adding to this old tray a roll from an old music roll, pages from a calculator book (yeah didn't know they existed), my bird painted on a saved tea bag, found fabrics, a part of an old ruler that I embossed with Seth Apter's and Emerald Creek's Vintage Beeswax embossing powder, a bird embellishment that was also embossed with Seth's/Emerald Creek's newly 2019 released embossing powder, an old rusty hinge, a medallion I made from resin and hand painted. Eggshells that were painted from my technique from here
https://www.mysticspringstudios.com/awa-2019-shop/yctt-2019-pal.
A Mother Earth totem made from fabrics, beads, twine, branches, a polymer face, and moss were also added.
Here is the kicker......
I was all along creating my own story.........
My love of my LA Cali suburb upbringing, my love of nature moving to the Midwest later in life, my love of all things lost, forgotten, tossed aside, yet still have have history, my love of birds, my love of fabrics that have meaning in life itself as fabrics clothe us, and give us comfort on a cold winter's night, my Mother Earth totem, also comforted with various fabrics, wool and meaningful elements that not only comfort her, but me as well. Maybe the Mom I had only such a short time in my life with and so dearly miss, and me, the little girl with a bottle of bird seed beside her, taking care of the birds; the mother role since my own children are grown up now.
I reflect back on these elements that made this work a "whole" and can say it is complete. Until of course, the next project that comes........
