Today Penny and I spent the day doing demos of gelli printing & collage at Greymouth Art in the Park. I’m enjoying small details, contrast, and mixing textures. I enjoy putting paint on them using blank paper to pull some of the paint back off, exposing the layers underneath. The specks of pink were accidental, and I love them.
I’ve been watching various artists on YouTube – some, like Louise Fletcher and Judy Woods, are old favorites. Others are new finds; I’m enjoying the work of Jackie Schomburg – her process is similar enough to mine to be accessible but different enough to provide a challenge.
I normally use heavy white mixed media paper for landscapes so decided to start with different substrates. I’m working in the large Dina Wakley MEdia kraft journal, and on loose sheets of PaintOn mixed media paper which comes in a pad with 5 or 6 different colours. In some cases, I’ve taped the edges so the works will have a clean border.
I’m using a mix of paint and collage & trying to incorporate some of Jackie’s ideas. When you take inspiration from other people’s work the hand of the artist always shows through, so the final works will still be obviously mine.
The works are very much my colour and style at the moment. I can only see the barest hint of Jackie’s influence so far. When I start exploring a new idea my work tends to be tight, and loosens up over time. I’m sure in the coming days her work will influence my process more. In one you can see a deliberate attempt to use different colours.
To quote the Rolling Stones, time is on my side…
I realised today that I’ve more time for myself than I’ve had in 25+ years. Between 1997 and 2000 we took on publishing the newspaper, Aunt J started needing a lot more of my time (we were close, and I had EPOA) and we moved in with Mum to be her caregivers. I was working full time and studying as well.
Today I didn’t get out of bed until mid morning, and have spent the day playing with paint and paper. Time for my art isn’t unusual because I always make it a priority, but I’m usually conscious of other things I need to do, especially for the paper.
It’s going to be interesting to see what life feels like as I get used to having time for my own priorities and what changes I make.
Since I posted in January life has mainly consisted of work and art. I’ve been Acting Group Manager Community Services for the last few months; it’s been interesting, and I’ve learned a lot. It’s also been time consuming – the way I use my time changed a lot. It helped me finally make a decision that’s been on the horizon for some time.
Tony and I took over publishing the Patea & Waverley Press in 1998. We had both worked in the printing industry in Auckland and it suited us. Over time it became more digital, so Tony’s training in Hand Typography wasn’t useful any longer. His health deteriorated and, for the last 4 years or so, the paper has rested solidly on my shoulders. Something I had always loved began to feel like a burden. The paper has a new publisher, and I am enjoying not organising my life around deadlines.
I’ve done a lot of art journaling lately. Some of it is downloading my head onto paper, pouring out the thoughts, and some of it is just about moving my hands – playing with paint, paper and colour. Today I finished a small Dylusions journal which meant decorating the cover before it goes on the bookcase. It’s a mix of paint, ink, magazine collage, Dylusions dycuts and quotes.
About 4 years ago I did a few sessions of counselling to get my head around some stuff. We also worked on me sleeping better, without huge success. We identified three things I wanted to achieve in the counselling; she said 3 is about the max you can do at any one time. One of the words we settled on was content; not content as in “no growth needed” but content to let the process work and accept life as it happens. There were a lot of very good reasons why that was needed.
And, full circle, the same thing applies now. There’s a lot of change happening in my life, and I can’t control much of it. It’s important I feel content with life regardless.
I’m inspired by Claire Stead‘s art and have just got her new release from Funky Fossil through Natalie May Scrapbooking in Australia. I got some clear text stamps and her collage paper. I was working in my 6×6 Dina Wakley kraft journal, one of my favs, this morning and flicked through the collage paper book and there it was — “I am content”. The universe wants me to know it will be ok!
Cath Sheard Art 