Freedom Book, My Artist Residency Begins

Collage III

I didn’t plan on beginning my self-imposed artist residency today, but when I woke up this morning, it felt like it had begun.

I don’t know how to explain it except that despite some voices in my head that said otherwise, my body was ready.  And it wasn’t going to do anything it didn’t want to.  So I got last week’s potholders that I sold over the weekend in the mail and went to my studio.

Once again I had a few ideas that ricocheted around in my head, but I wasn’t thinking about what to do, I just began doing it.

I pulled out a piece of cardboard that I saved to cover my desk so I won’t have to worry about keeping it clean for my sewing and dumped out the padded envelope of supplies that Emily sent me last week.  I got my big jar of matt medium, some markers and transparent hankies and turned the pages of the little 4″x5″ book that Emily made and gave to me.

I looked at the collages I started making a few weeks ago and for the next couple of hours, I tore and glued and cut and painted and drew and colored.  I pulled up some of the pieces I glued down two weeks ago, cut them up and moved them around.

When I stopped, I had three collages.

I’m not sure if they’re done or not.  I’ll give them a chance to be for a while and see if they need anything else.

One thing I notice about making these is that it’s so easy to make a mark, to cut and paste that I work quickly.  Too quickly I think.  I need to slow myself down, to let them speak to me like I do my other work.  It’s such a new medium for me, I’m just learning how to work with it.

CollageIV

I worked on all three at the same time never giving each one the time to dry.   They’re in a book  so it matters because the pages stick together and some of the edges don’t stick.

But that didn’t stop me. I don’t want to exert that much control over the materials.  I like that they sometimes do their own thing. And if I decide I don’t like it, I can always put something over it or just remove it.

Collage V

So far, for me, these are all about freedom, intuition, and feeling.  Maybe that’s a good name for them.  They’re Freedom Collages in my Freedom Book.

2 thoughts on “Freedom Book, My Artist Residency Begins

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Full Moon Fiber Art