If you are like me…

Some say there is no such thing as magic, but I can’t help but see it everywhere.

Frozen in Time Sleeping Beauty Awaits Her Prince

The part of a love story that makes it so wondrous is so often the time before that love was there. The time of waiting; often it is the searching for salvation, but in this case it is more a tale of the seasons.  As Winter waits for Spring, sleep is naught, but waitingfor the coming of the dawn.  Respecting the waiting is what allows us an appreciation of the gift.

May those who wait appreciate even this for it is only in being that we can wait and being-ness is the great mystery we are blessed to participate in now.

~B~

Original works including this one are available at Artistic Avenues Explored with Joy.

The Adventure Continues

Headboy wonders what having a girlfriend would be like, Mr. Moon tries to help, Bushy is angsty about being himself and T. Stone finds out the hard truth.  In Headboy and Mr. Moon 6: Girlfriend.

If you happen to have missed any of the adventure find it all right here on the Headboy and Mr. Moon page.

One of the reasons that I wanted to create my own site was to shed the light I’ve found on my own path with others. So I want start a series called Fiat Lux.  It’s is Latin for “Let there be light.”  I hope that I can shed some light in to the lives of others as so many have shed their light into my life.

With peace and a firm knowledge that their is purpose in all that we find.

~B~

Bottom Level Paint and Adhering

The next step was using some stencils and a tree stamp that I had, all with Pane’s Grey fluid acrylic. The “LUM” on the left side and the letters in the bottom lettering as well as the three trees were next. After that I tried two different adhesion methods, one for more texture with the pages rippling a bit ( I can’t help adding texture) and one for a more smooth traditional look. The first was a matte medium adhesion and pretty much drowning the paper or plastic sheets in it. Look at the upper left corner to see the area that I am talking about. Then I used traditional paper glue on the others to keep them flat. I had some issues keeping the edges down, but used basic glue under and on top of the edges to keep them down, or simply let them lift so I could play with that as time went on. After they dried I covered all the pieces that could be ruined with matte medium. Then I washed over everything with Titan Buff liquid.

A Few Steps in One Pic

There could have been a pic in between the last one and this next one, I got too into the project and forgot that I was recording it for all of you out there.  Never fear though I’ll quickly walk you through it all.  The next thing I did was a glaze of Red Oxide liquid acrylic but made sure to only cover about 75% of the piece. I then attached the map and some other collage pieces I had held back until now (thesaurus page and Fleur-de-lis), cover the new additions with matte medium and then did another glaze of Red Oxide again only covering 75% of the piece.  At this point in small sections you can still see through to the titan buff and in other they are covered with both oxides.

Final Steps

At this point I grab the Sharpies.  It was actually a scary time in the project, I have never written on top of art I had spent hours creating and while I knew it led to the effect I wanted it was nerve racking to start.  I used black, gold, silver and red and drew the eye in the upper left, the symbol in black on the right and many phrases all throughout the canvas.  Once I was satisfied with that I used the Panes Grey to create a border around the canvas to accent and mask parts of the work.  I created a Panes Grey thick acrylic with some Bone Black and Ultramarine Blue to be able to produce the scratch through swirl in the mid-upper right. Then I went back to the tree stamp and using the Panes Grey liquid again I stamped two more trees on the piece. Some of my Sharpie work was lost to the point of only being hinted at by a remaining part of a few letters, thus adding to the mystery.  I recreated the partial oxide and Panes Grey washes on the edges to finish.  I had already signed the piece on the map so at this point it was complete!

I hope you enjoyed this little walk through and remember, mysteries are sometimes more magical than their solutions!

The Very Beginning or Mystery

I started with a 24×36″, Artist’s Loft, heavy duty, gallery wrapped canvas and I put it where I believed I was going to be doing the majority of my work, a large floor easel in my studio.  Mind the wonderful gift from Lady that hangs where I can see it as I work. I unwrap the plastic and get at the beautiful potential of a blank canvas.

Initial Layout

I have an idea of where I’m going but it’s vague. I start to gather the pieces I want to use to patch together a general aesthetic while keeping in mind that the earlier I lay something down the more likely it gets covered up at least in part and possibly in total.  This is a collection of pieces I had worked on as side projects or for learning purposes, some plastic sheets with pre-printed text and images on them and a piece of parchment that I know I want to end up playing a front and center focus of the piece as a treasure map.

A Redesign After Some Prep-work

I’ve cut some things up, created a set of bold words that mean mystery to fill in a seeming gap in the piece in the upper right hand corner.  I chose the word “mystery” in Irish, Italian, German and Latin.  The first three were for ancestral roots that are precious to me and that last for both the sound of it being read out loud having a audio quality that aligns with the piece and the nearness to the title of the work.  It acts a a translator to the above words so their context is more easily determined.  The parchment map has been inked, singed and placed, but won’t go down for a number of steps into the process because I want it to be out front. (As a joyful side note: I did not burn the place down in the process of making he map!)  This is the bones of the work all put together.

I like shorter instead of longer posts in general so I’ll save the next steps for another day.  May the Mysteries in your life create excitement and end in more joy than you could imagine right now,

~B~