Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Artistic challenge and fun

It is not quite warm enough yet to sit out on the deck, cup of tea in hand, and gaze into the garden. Having lunch in the garden is one of my favorite summer moments.  Yet this chalk pastel did not have its origin in that memory, but rather in the inside of a cereal box.


One set of flaps were cut off a cardboard cereal box with a plain interior, and then all kinds of art materials were used to make marks inside the box without looking inside.  The messier the process, the more exciting and unexpected the results!


The artistic challenge, and fun, of making a creative mess--is in finding shapes and figures that tell a story in the squiggles and splashes, and then in trying to replicate exactly those marks using just one material.  Chalk pastel is a great media for this project because its nature is boldly dramatic and intensely colorful--just like the surprising collisions of form and color found inside the box.


Of course it is also important for the eye to find a place of rest in an art piece, and this is an image of "lunch in the garden" so the hand and tea cup, by their recognizable representation, become the quiet place to sit and appreciate a never-before-seen flower. Happy spring from the Journey Oracle.