Archive for November 8th, 2006

I haven’t spent much time in my studio the past few weeks for a number of reasons. Today, I decided enough is enough, I must do something creative. I’m afraid, however, that I may have created some more UFOs! I wanted to experiment with paint on fabric with no expectation of a final product, and thought why not today? I have a few textile paints but they’re mostly metallics and pearlescents. So, in addition to those, I decided to use some acrylics as well. My thinking is that artists paint on canvas, so it’s really no different to paint on regular old fabric, right? There may be a color fastness issue, but then again, I don’t really plan on running these pieces through the wash. Actually, come to think of it, most of the acrylic paint that has ever inadvertently made its way onto my clothing, has stayed there through many washings despite my best efforts to remove!

Anyway, I collect a number of everyday items to use in making art inlcuding, styrofoam meat trays, plastic netted fruit bags, aluminum, and basically anything with an interesting texture. I started by cutting out the checkered waffle part of a styrofoam tray and using that to print on the fabric. I used a couple of different colors for this and painted on 2 pieces of fabric, one pink and the other orange. This morning, I had also collected some maple leaves. I painted these a turquoise color and printed these on fabric. I dyed some cheescloth and then arranged some cut bits and pieces on my background fabric.

My first finished piece morphed into an ACEO, probably since I’ve been making these for the past few months and they’re relatively quick to put together. This particular one didn’t photograph very well and is a little busy, but overall, I enjoyed the experiment. Once I took out the paints, my ideas expanded from there. Plus, while one thing was drying, I could work on another piece. I have some larger pieces that I’m also working on right now, in addition to 2 6″ square paintings that I started a month ago.

What have I been up to the past week? I have been considering getting a license to teach and attended an informational session at the University of Colorado for people who have a degree but not in education. I also applied for a substitute teaching license which required getting fingerprinted and submitting to a background check. I’m not quite sure if I want to get licensed to teach art or possibly forgo that all together and get an elementary license. I’ve been talking with a lot of people including teachers and let’s face it, art teaching jobs are few and far between. I have been volunteering at my daughter’s school every week now and I have to say, I have really enjoyed working with all the children.

Meanwhile, thank goodness election day has come and gone. I stood in line for 1 1/2 hours to vote yesterday, my husband was in line for 2 1/2 hours after he got off work. I’m not sure about other states, but Denver, CO tried to go from 300+ voting precincts to 55 “voting centers”. Imagine the log-jam!