Making the Art: Photos of the Process (Pt. I)

Here is a glimpse into the nitty-gritty process of making this installation piece: "I'm Not What You Make Of Me: I Am What I Am Becoming". This is an extrememly detailed wall installation of four different works assembled together: "The Burden", "Our Spilled Blood Sprouts Flowers" "A Study in Emotion: 5 Ocean Renderings" and "Chad Gadya". It is comprised of four base materials: canvas, silk, wood, and bone, and then of course, the "painted" medium--- acrylic, gesso, graphite, china marker, and three shades of red dye.

There are two large paintings that bracket the middle red panel which has silk and goat jaw bones suspended below it (this piece is titled: "Chad Gadya"), and 5 wood panels depicting time-sensitive emotional ocean renderings. By time-sensitive, I mean that each of the five renderings were completed under two hours. I also used the same four colors of paint throughout all five. The horizon line remains in the same position, but every other aspect of them is left to my spontaneous interpretation through imagination, memory, and pure emotion. I wanted to capture the flow of feeling on random days, to see what surfaced.

Now, all of this is posted randomly. Its a tedious process going through my photos and journals, trying to get it all down on here. Bare with me, please. This is coming in installments (good reason for you to keep checking in *wink* wink*)

starting "The Burden" it all begins with two floating heads: my husband and I.

Then, a sheet of transfer paper is placed over that. (I used to have a working printer which made this go MUCH faster!)

Because I can't afford the equiptment I'm accustomed to using for my signature "collage" technique, I'm forced to render straight from the chromebook from digital photos I've shot of David and myself in various poses. I lay tracing paper right over the screen to sketch the basic form, (by blowing up the image and making a "grid" of sorts to keep it in proper proportion) and then I transfer THAT onto the paper. Very time consuming this way.

There we go, nearly ready.

Ready to begin the transfer to the canvas (more fenangling).

Painting it in.

There are many layers to the work. And this isn't even finished, yet.

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NOW, here are photos of the silk for "Chad Gadya" that I've dyed and I'm now in the process of sewing it together (it's over 100 inches in length, and 56 inches tall)