Still Art-ing (Result)!

"Be Fearless"

8 x 10 Canvas Panel

Wire accents & Swarovski crystals on wallpaper background

She's finished: I may not have my Christmas cards out yet, but hey, this is complete (and was much more fun to do!) . . . This little tightrope walker was inspired by the work we did in Willowing's class while at the same time (hopefully) being representative of me and the materials I like to work with . . .

"Be Fearless" was created on an 8 x 10 canvas panel covered in decorative wallpaper. I roughed it up a bit with sandpaper before adding water-soulble oil pastels, silver glitter and stamped stars (with gold ink) for depth. The figure of the girl was first created on cold pressed watercolor paper using acrylic, water-soluble crayons and glitter gel pens before being cut out and added to the background. The tightrope was made from a piece of wire which was tied to the canvas through punched holes and brads. I added both iridescent Swarovski beads to the wire and flatback crystals (in a deep purple) to the background. Final touches include a crown made from the scraps of the original painting and the words, "Be Fearless" stamped with gold ink (and enhanced with gold gel pen) on the bottom.

Thanks for looking! Now, onto those Christmas cards . . . xo

MMM: Shrines

Affirmation Shrine

"My good is rushing to greet me"

Detail of stork and circled #2

Teardrop crystal and crackle medium

This will be the first time that Mixed Media Monday is going monthly! With this prompt, Shrines, each participant will have an entire month to complete their pieces. I decided to take this opportunity to revisit a style of assemblage art that I first shared here. This latest piece is what I have come to call an Affirmation Shrine and reads, "my good is rushing to greet me. . . ."

The above was created using the back of an 8 x 10 canvas and a 5 x 7 canvas panel. I first painted the "front" back and sides of an 8 x 10 canvas in several soft washes of grey and blue. When the layers of acrylic were dry, I then added crackle medium (that had been mixed with paint) to the sides and corners of the "frame".  A few strokes of this mixture was also added to the canvas panel. Several layers of crackle and acrylic were applied to the rough exterior until I got the distressed look that I was after. The final step in this process was to wash the dried frame in charcoal. The canvas panel was also given a wash of soft acrylics before being collaged with damask wallpaper, stars, babies and the stork image from The Graphics Fairy. 

Final assemblage details include a teardrop crystal added to the top right of the frame with an eye hook, a bit of pink feather behind the wing of the baby that is meant to represent Kendra, glitter and white gel pen on the stork that is carrying the baby rushing to greet us and silver glitter details on the lining of the "clouds." Lastly, Swarovski crystals adorned the sky along with the cut out stars, vintage text was applied in a ransom-note style to spell out the sentiment and a portion of a vintage ruler was added to the front of the piece with E-600. The final touch was to use a craft knife to rip the exposed canvas sides so that whatever the piece is hung on will show through. 

Thank you for looking! I so look forward to seeing everyone's shrines this month . . .

Kristin xo