I began by painting a base of ivory acrylic to the paper then stamped the script background using tan and gold paint. I used a flower stencil to add another layer and outlined the petals with a black permanent Sharpie marker in fine point. I also used a stencil that created polka dots in a blend of dark coral and orange in the underlying background.
I searched through a journal of my poems to find something that hit me as usable in an art piece and ended up choosing a few lines of one poem. I had to do a bit of revision even on those till it felt right. I was drawn to this poem because it speaks to the mode I'm in right now in my life. Exploring different avenues for creativity and growing some sort of retirement business where I can make art and share it with the world. As ideas flow and I begin to plan for my retirement I see that I am a story with many chapters and as the poem says, I don't want to skip a single one.
I printed the lines of the poem on beige cardstock and cut out each line separately with a deckle edge scissors. Then I chalked the edges with bronze Color-Bok ink.
As I was pulling out cardstock I came across some acetate images of women from years ago when I was making more collage pieces and decided this face needed to be in the piece as it emphasizes the idea of a woman telling her story.
The butterflies were an added afterthought that I cut from some specialty paper I had laying around. I think they convey my belief that we are all free to pursue our dreams.
Creating pieces like this is a fun process and it always surprises me how parts of a piece are planned and other parts just sort of emerge during the process.
Today I'm off to a preserve to take some photos of nature. I'll write poems to go with them and then create some collage pieces. I love interweaving art with words and I'm grateful my creative mind offers lots of inspiration.
Renee this background is great...the only thing that could be different is to enlarge your lettering...love it! Deb
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