Mixed media forum challenge for September!

[Cyndi L]

Let's get abstract! Now, I know that there's actually an abstract forum here at WC, but I am talking about doing abstracts with mixed media

Here's my take on abstracts, for what it's worth:

Nita Leland writes, in Creative Collage Techniques:

With nonobjective design, the picture has no apparent reference to a subject….Instead, the formal elements of design are the picture. The picture is “about” color, line, or shape without a specific realistic image to create the visual sensation.

So here’s the problem: I can’t really tell you exactly how to make an abstract collage. I have no way of knowing which design elements are going to speak to you. My piece (below) is a combination of cut and torn papers in analogous colors and similar shapes, and when I started out, I only had the vaguest notion of where it was going: it was going to be pink. Bright pink.

Some people won’t start working until they know what they’re going to do, but with abstracts it’s a whole different ballgame, at least for me. Once I had painted the canvas and glued down the first piece of tissue paper, the process took over. I don’t know at exactly what point that started to happen, just that it did.

So, I can tell you how I made this piece, but not why. I can tell you my steps, but I can’t direct your path. I would suggest that you do NOT make a copy of this piece, but rather just read through the instructions for the technical aspects…which are pretty darned simple…and then go make your own.


Here's the directions for my piece. I don't expect that anyone will decide to follow them particularly, but they're here if you want them

[Mary Woodul]

This one is going to be fun Cyndi!

[Cyndi L]

Well, I knew you'd like it Mary, since abstract is your thing!

[Tamarak]

Hi All

I guess I have already been working on this!

I would love to be doing more...but at the moment my 2 kids who had moved out have moved home, one of them bringing a boyfriend in tow...so my studio has been taken over along with the whole house! This is temporary - there are far too many people in this house right now! We went from 3 of us to 6 - yikes!

I'm not sure where the original idea came from to try this...the first one I did was for a postcard project. I really liked it, so tried it bigger and on canvas. These first 2 pictures are on canvas 16x20 and 12x12.





I had done these first 3 in the series when one of Robert Genn's Twice Weekly letters talked about "shibui". The process I use really reflects how he described it. Here is his letter:

Shibui is a broad term that can mean irregularity of form, openness to nature, roughness of texture, and the naturalness of daily life. Also known as Shibusa, it refers as well to the Japanese "Seven aspects of being," which are simplicity, implicitness, modesty, silence, naturalness, roughness and normalcy. It's seen in raku pottery, architecture, folk crafts, haiku, gardens and painting. Shibui is worth thinking about no matter where you are or what your art.

Fact is, perfection is boring. Shibui allows viewer participation in the artist's art. It's particularly valuable in an age of highly finished and sophisticated machine-manufactured products. Shibui comes naturally, shows the hand of the maker, and triumphs gesture and the vagaries of process. While there are hundreds of ways to bring shibui into your life, if you think you might include the idea in your painting, here are seven:

Use the whole brush--right down to the ferrule.
Have more than one colour on the brush at one time.
Hold the brush well up on the handle.
Work freshly and let intuition be your guide.
Feel the energy and direction of your subject.
Be not uptight, but relaxed.
Quit when you've connected and while the going is good.

In a way, the making of raku pottery is a good metaphor. In the fiery arms of the kiln god, work takes on a form of its own. Think of yourself as a kiln rather than a labouring artisan. Under the smoking straw of passion, work shapes itself and becomes its own statement. Shibui is all about trust--trust in your materials, trust in your instincts, trust in yourself, trust in the kiln. Shibui transforms frantic work into calm joy and subdues the creator with relative contentment. As well, viewers get a strong feeling they are looking at art.

In shibui, sheer ease is a virtue. Hours fly by as the creator becomes lost in process and the gentle curiosity of outcome. You never know what you're going to pull out of that kiln.

For my "Pieces of Colour" series each colour square or rectangle is painted and then attached to the canvas or backing using gel medium. The calculating the size of each piece, the cutting or ripping of the pieces, the sticking them all down to a paper to act as a backing while I am painting the pieces and then once they dry, the placing of them (playing with which way to put them) and the actual sticking them on all takes time, but is meditative in it's own way and follows all of the 7 ways to bring shibui into your life that Robert listed in his letter.

This last one is also from the postcard project and so is 4x6 on watercolour paper and begins playing with using more than just all squares. I plan to play with different colour combinations as well.



That was kind of long...sorry!
Tammy (Tamarak)

[WildGoose]

Tammy-

Intriguing concept, there, and interesting results...

I've never intentionally meditated or followed such specific steps like Genn suggests when doing a work...but only have gotten instinctively/intuitively? into the flow/give-and-take/play of the development an abstract piece as the work progresses...

I feel most comfortable starting out with a pre-conceived design idea, if not the full design; so it's a wee bit hard for me to quite wrap around my mind this way of approaching an abstract piece...Kudos to you for giving it a go!

( That I have inescapable " Left-brainer " tendencies; I know all too well )!
I read his words through twice trying to understand this!
Through no fault of his or your writing, I'm sure!

I guess since I just have a liking for asymetry, (sp)? I prefer the last 4x6 work, the all together squares are just too much of sameness for me...I can't manage to separate them into individual elements easily..... ( categorization/left brain ) .....whereas the last has the added dynamic of a different shape and another kind of balance...all IMHO, of course....

When you say exploring with different colour combos; do you mean cutting and mixing them up on the same canvas...or you don't really know until you are doing it?
Or am I being too literal again?( probably,eh)?

Interesting read! Interesting concept!

How we all approach our Art-making is just so different, eh?

Thanks, Tamarak, into a glimpse of how your'e going about it!
DO like the fact you mention "PLAY"!

Regards,
Chris/WildGoose

[Cyndi L]

Tammy, niiiiiiice!! All about the color and the repetition of shape and the freedom of movement. I love grids so much. The third one is my favorite, I think. Thanks for sharing about the concept behind the series too!

Hey Chris, there's nothing wrong with a left-brained approach! It obviously works quite well for you, as you produce beautiful pieces. I find myself getting kind of formulaic sometimes though, so I thought this might be a good "exercise" to move away from some of that.

[Tamarak]

Originally Posted by WildGoose

Tammy-

Intriguing concept, there, and interesting results...

I've never intentionally meditated or followed such specific steps like Genn suggests when doing a work...but only have gotten instinctively/intuitively? into the flow/give-and-take/play of the development an abstract piece as the work progresses...

I feel most comfortable starting out with a pre-conceived design idea, if not the full design; so it's a wee bit hard for me to quite wrap around my mind this way of approaching an abstract piece...Kudos to you for giving it a go!

( That I have inescapable " Left-brainer " tendencies; I know all too well )!
I read his words through twice trying to understand this!
Through no fault of his or your writing, I'm sure!

I guess since I just have a liking for asymetry, (sp)? I prefer the last 4x6 work, the all together squares are just too much of sameness for me...I can't manage to separate them into individual elements easily..... ( categorization/left brain ) .....whereas the last has the added dynamic of a different shape and another kind of balance...all IMHO, of course....

When you say exploring with different colour combos; do you mean cutting and mixing them up on the same canvas...or you don't really know until you are doing it?
Or am I being too literal again?( probably,eh)?

Interesting read! Interesting concept!

How we all approach our Art-making is just so different, eh?

Thanks, Tamarak, into a glimpse of how your'e going about it!
DO like the fact you mention "PLAY"!

Regards,
Chris/WildGoose

I have never intentionally meditated either (too much noise up there to try!)...and, as a rule, I don't usually follow steps either...but I did find it interesting that what I was doing already followed those steps listed by Genn...not saying it right...oh well...I do like repetition, grids...back when I was studying photographic arts, my work started investigating distortion and grids...I would take pictures made up of multiple negatives, playing with distortion and repetition...later, when I was doing wood working, I would get lost in the different phases of a piece...the cutting, the sanding, the painting...now I find one type of my painting taking a similar path...it does just come...I wish I could remember how I thought about doing the first 'pieces of colour'...but I can't!

Thanks for your comments...I too like the more asymmetry of the 3rd piece...I have to work at doing anything asymmetrical, or random...I natrually tend more towards the repetition thing! The pieces in real life have quite a bit of texture and I get lost in that...playing with the globs of paint...touching them afterwards!

First I decide on the size of canvas...then on the size/shape of the pieces, then somewhere in there I pick out a colour combination I am going to use, then I cut/rip out all the pieces and temporarily stick them to a larger piece of paper, separating them as much as I can, then I paint them...so I end up with all these pieces of painted paper bits and I play with them on the canvas...deciding which way to lay them out...usually I have more pieces than I will actually use too...it is like a puzzle with no pre-determined final image...I have to make up one that I like...(I am probaly just a little nuts!)

And it is play...and escape...and therapy!
I am so missing my space to paint right now!

Tammy

[Harry Spitz]

Steely Eyes

Mixed media work. Rusty steel, pebbles, and cut out holes. Found on NYC street.

[WildGoose]

August meets September!

[Cyndi L]

LOL!! That's great! I love it when we can pull different challenges together. Rust and Abstract...I think I'm in love!

[Harry Spitz]

Here's another one.


Ocean 2007, 32" X 48" Acrylic, Metal leaf and rusty steel strap on tortured plywood.

[Cyndi L]

I think these are the most colorful waves I've ever seen from you, Harry! Was this an experiment or have you done more with bright colors?