Said goodbye to the father of a young man that I call 'my other son' (and love about as much) yesterday afternoon. His Dad's memorial service was at the new local Community Center and there was an amazing turn out of family and friends and townfolk. As well as Gordie's service, there was also the huge one for the 2 Paramedics that died when their van went over the side of our horrible road up in Tofino.
Both services were standing room only and what really struck me was how in a small remote place on an island off the coast of B.C. Canada, the feeling of being together as a people in times of crisis really strikes home. One of the reasons I love this place so much.
Anysadbutcomfortedway, I am trying to break free from this dark place of 'dead zone-itus' that I'm currently weighed under. (That 'take my own picture for a painting subject idea I was blithering on about a few days ago? Let's pretend that didn't happen....) I've been doing a lot of 'Internet Trollin' - and I have to say I'm pretty darn good at searching out very esoteric subjects; entertaining myself for hours - so, anytryingtonotblitheronagainway, one of my fascinations is with Graphic Novels - they are the pinnacle of comic books, if you will - but so much more. And I also watched "Mirror Mask" (and if you haven't seen this - do so right away! )It's the story of a young girl who draws and wants to escape her life she has with her parents (classic teenage angst) I won't say more to save a Spoiler Alert. The sets and costumes etc are by Dave McKean, also the film director along with Neil Gaiman of 'Coraline' fame. Dave has to be one of the MOST astounding artists I've ever come across. I am in thrall to his work! So I've been pulling out ALL my mixed-media art books and studying intently. I've taken a canvas I wasn't too pleased with - that's known as 'Artist's Prerogative' by the way - and sanded it all down to the barest hint of an image then painted red ink onto it. The red ink seeped through all the bare spots and has given me a most exciting texture and image on the canvas' back. I've re stretched the canvas with this back-side out and am now working on this image. I've begun by scanning in eyes from an old photo and printing it up on archival paper then with matte acrylic gel, coating the front of the image at least 6 times - letting it dry in between each coat. What this process does, is give you a 'transferable image' that you soak in water and carefully rub the paper away to be left with the image on your gel coating. This can then be applied to the canvas -as a collage idea- and because it's semi transparent, the canvas shows through. When I applied the eyes to my image- the red ink slowly seeped through and colored it, giving me an even cooler image!
Yeah....I'm excited.
So I'll be experimenting and learning with this technique over the next while. I need to go slow as my usual modus operendi is to dive in full force and mess about.....not always a recommended route.
Here we go-o-o-ooo!
Painting is by Dave McKean from the 'Sandman' series by Niel Gaiman. Look Dave up at http://www.mckean-art.co.uk/ It's so worth it!
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