On Burlap 3, Part 1

I'm working on gessoed burlap for my third and fourth projects of this type. My fourth project will have dimensions like the first two (approximately 2' x 4'). Project three is larger and has dimensions of ~4' x ~6'. In the pictures I show the stretched burlap on the pieces of plywood. For this project I changed the process slightly by including a layer of plastic cling wrap underneath the pieces of burlap. This should prevent adhesion of the gesso to the plywood. While adhesion of the gesso to the plywood does create a desirable stippling effect in the final products (some gesso remains on the plywood after removal of the burlap, thus creating small holes in the painting which are effective as texture), my last project tore in one place. I was able to patch the whole with a black gessoes piece of burlap. I patched the hole with black acrylic paint and pressed the patch (patched from the back) and the painting between two acrylic panels and a lot of books. I left it for two days before uncovering it and letting it finish the drying process. It came out looking great.

Stretched canvas on plywood with plastic clingwrap. Plywood: 4'x8'. Burlap: ~4'x~6'.

On Burlap 2

I've spent the last two weeks working out the following picture. It is 21"x42" mixed media (acrylic and spray on enamel paint) on burlap. The burlap has two coats of brushed on gesso followed by two background coats (layering) of acrylic paint. The words were printed using a lino-block. The bottle was sprayed on with the use of a large stencil I used created after photographing a glass Coke bottle. I'll be entering this piece in a local juried art contest. The theme is 'Food' (as mentioned in a previous post). This piece deals with the use of well-proportioned sex appeal to sell products. Interestingly, although the bottle fits the proportions of an 'ideal' female, the bottle is also distinctly phallic in shape yet this comparison does not as easily enter the consciousness. This bottle is intended to be appealing (yes, sexually) and it continues a tradition of forcing a model of an 'ideal' figure on women.

Food Appeal. July 2011. 21"x42". Mixed media on burlap.

On Burlap

Detail of Say Something.

A little over a week ago I started a new project. I've been interested in experimenting with different, somewhat unconventional materials. I found burlap on sale for under $2 a yard. Excellent! I purchased some burlap and primer and got started.

Burlap.

The first few steps involved stretching the burlap to a piece of plywood, stapling it in place and then priming it. I used Pratt and Lambert SuPrime interior latex wall primer/sealer, white for the job. I know that not using a standard gesso-type primer will ultimately have implications, but, I'm interested in the end effects and I have mixed feelings seeing art as something permanent. It's more romantic to see at as an ephemeral experience.

Burlap stretched, stapled and primed.

While the primer was drying I had a chance to contemplate a background. An artist friend of mine has been encouraging me to create backgrounds and then produce works on the created backgrounds. I decided to roll primary color and black acrylic paint over the entire surface. After this dried I rolled a layer of black acrylic over it all. The texture of the burlap created several well in which the final black paint layer did not settle, thus producing pockets of color from the first layer of paint.

Prepared painting surface. Overall size is approximately 24"x48".

I now needed to get down to design of the image(s) to place on this newly created surface. Starting with the prompt of consumption, I did some sketches of mouths sucking in everything around them. My first step in developing the sketch into something to paint on the surface was to photograph a study. Since I was home alone at the time I took some pictures of myself with the desired expression and used the following as my model.

Reference image for painting.

To facilitate the creation of a monochromatic image for the painting, I manipulated 'contrast,' 'exposure,' etc., and ended up with the following:

Color adjusted reference image.

I proceeded to create the sketch of this image on paper.

Sketch of reference image. Approximately 6"x8".

With my image ready, it was time to scale it up and to 'box in' the desired frame. I did this and sketched the image at the final desired size.

'Scaled up' sketch.

The next step was to create the stencil for creating the image on the painting surface. To do this I hung the above sketch on a window and covered it with paper. Through top layer I was able to discern the above sketch and proceeded to trace outline for creating my stencil.

Tracing the sketch in order to create my stencil.

After this was complete I attached the stencil outline to Bristol paper which would provide the rigid structure necessary for my stencil. Using a sharp blade I cut out the stencil. Using masking tape I fixed the stencil to the burlap and spray-painted the image.

Image spray-painted on burlap.

The bars near the nose and brow show how the entire stencil was held in place. I needed to cover these stencil supports and did by cutting another stencil which was just big enough to remove these conspicuous lines. Following this I blocked the entire area in with white acrylic paint to create a more uniform layer of white.

Face complete.

The next step was to create the wavy lines being sucked into the mouth. I created another stencil and decided the wavy lines should be yellow--bright, glossy, sunshine yellow. In order to make the yellow as bright as I wanted it to be, I applied three undercoats of white spray paint before applying three coats of the high-gloss yellow spray paint.

Addition of wavy, yellow lines.

Wavy, yellow lines now done.

At this point I felt the picture was near complete. However, during the process of spray-painting, although the stencil was taped down, it lifted in some places and the spray paint 'bled' into the black spaces. In fact, viewed full size, it is clear where the tape was placed for the wavy lines. The last step was to touch up with black acrylic to sharpen the image and its contrast and to remove 'bleeding' of the spray paint.

Say Something. 2011. 48"x24".

I was pleased with the overall quality of the final project. I'm anxious to try the process again with another image.

I will change a few things the next time I do this. When I stretched my burlap on the plywood I had nothing between the burlap and the plywood. As a result, the primer and some of the paint traveled through the fantastic texture of the burlap and effectively glued the burlap to the wood. I did pull the burlap off with minimal impact to the picture, but it was a bit anxiety inducing to remove and in the future I will include a layer of paper or plastic wrap to prevent this adhesion. In the future I will also use a regular gesso compared to a wall primer. I've read about both and decided gesso will be better for flexibility and color fastness.

Update: changed title of painting from Consumption I to Say Something.

Acrylics

I needed to paint something and this is the result. I'd recently spent several days in the rainforest and the woods near the ocean so I decided to do something that contrasted with all that green. The green does show in the painting, but, like a bright flower in the mountains, it is no more than a few freckles. The picture maintains a symmetry of balance from left to right in areas of shade and light. Again, out of contrast, the majority in this picture is light while certain smaller portions hold the shade.

NW Contrast. 24"x36".  Acrylic on canvas. July 2011.

In Public

I've been traveling the last few weeks and had an opportunity to see and experience different areas of Washington State. My brother, a geologist, and I decided to go on a 'rocks and minerals' series of outings. We centered our searches near the Ingalls opheolite sequence near Blewett Pass, WA. Apart from searching for and finding serpentinite, calcite, chlorite, and garnets, we also found soapstone. Soapstone is made of talc and has a value of '1' on Moh's Hardness Scale. I, of course, took advantage of this in order to leave my mark with a rock hammer. In the picture below, notice that others had exploited this physical property as well, however, others had use what appears to have been wood saws and power tools. This cutting of the soapstone created a series of flat faces and unnaturally sharp corners for a talc-based rock. In order to present contrast to this geometry, I began my design with the circle at the top of the design and it eventually grew into what is pictured. The indentations cover an area about two feet square.

Rock indentations created June 2011. Located near scenic viewpoint north of Lake Wenatchee.

The following come from July 2011 and were from locations on Washington's Olympic peninsula.

Carving in large piece of driftwood on Rialto Beach near La Push, WA. Approximately 18"x18". Knife used was a Remington 4-inch blade knife.

Rock arrangement in Hoh River (rock bar in middle of river) near Bogachiel Campground/State Park, WA. Design approximately 20'x15'. The shape is consistent with above pictures, although the perspective is reversed. The perspective is from the upstream view. The arrangement was done conscious of the river and that as it rises, the relief of the arranged rocks will show for a period of time as the water rises around it. Note: I did embellish this image with two arcs of stone near the base of the 'head' of the design.

Stitch it up 1

I was at the Goodwill store today looking for patterns for a different project (I was looking for printed images or fabrics for creating lightning bolts or electrical patterns) and while browsing I came across the random bags of stuffed animals and I got an idea. I decided to purchase a bag of said animals, a bag of interesting thread (appears to be homespun wool thread), and my idea was to disassemble and reassemble stuffed animals in interesting combinations. I should get to other creations with time but I first started with a bright green monkey and a purple and orange elephant. I recombined the heads of these stuffed animals and then decided to attach the newly formed head to an old "Russell Stover," chocolates-associated kangaroo. "Roo" was removed. Head was removed. Recombined head one was attached in  place of head of kangaroo head. Other head was attached to the pouch. One bright green monkey arm was included in place of an elephant ear on the pouch-associated head. The wool yarn used initially proved too difficult for my upholstery needle (which broke) and I ended up using a heavy duty upholstery thread for the rest of the project. Additionally, I included a sound and LED light unit from a Carter's baby toy in the head of the primarily-monkey head: squeeze the head, it plays a lullaby and two parts of the head now light up red with the music. I'll try to post more pictures of additional creations as they are made.

Complete view of finished product. Total height is about 6". I could call it "Elepharoonkey," ....

Right profile view of finished product.

Close-up of 'revised' head of stuffed animal.

Want of Talk

My son was diagnosed with apraxia this week. That night an image kept running through my mind. The following picture is what has come of it so far. I'm in the process of developing the idea.

The picture is 18" x 24" on bristol paper; medium acrylic base used as adhesive of Seattle Times clippings and as coating of newsprint; foreground image drawn with permanent ink on bristol paper, cut out and laid on prepared background

I'm planning more color and production of background. I'm also considering treatment of the image of my son as well. I might try to create a more realistic image or might leave the highly contrasting images. Either way, I plan to colorize and add pattern to the speechless communication of the person. My son is surrounded by words, understands and interprets them, but is unable to speak them himself. Silent, but we communicating volumes.