Process & Technique
On adventures into the Colorado Rockies, I collect mementos of my hikes and experience natural, rough textures through touch. The contrasting sensation of bark vs rock or aspen leaf vs ponderosa needle, fills my thoughts with curious ways in which I can combine them on canvas. My love for fallen, worn branches with beautiful beetle carvings, sharp pine cones, damp dark earth, or weathered old tree bark, keeps me on the hunt. I carry a small ruck sack to contain it all and bring it back to the studio feeling as if I carry delightful treasures!
The Process Begins
Once in the studio, innovative creativity sparks as I start placing various sizes of natural material on a blank canvas, moving them around in different ways, to get a basic idea of a beginning composition. Thinking about contrasting background textures and light or dark color pallets, I then sketch out a few rough ideas on paper, choose one, and start prepping or texturing the canvas. Most of the time I use a pallet knife or spreaders to move the molding paste around, but sometimes I use texture rollers made for wall finishes as well. Once its dried and hardened the next day, acrylic color is applied along with several layers of texture details and varnish.
Let the Piece Speak
The next step in process is very intuitive. First, a variety of eclectic materials are laid out around the canvas that I might like to include in the piece on top of the background. A long pine branch becomes a varnished focal point that is wrapped in wire and adorned with glass or bone beads. Then I might try a piece of rusted metal, different textured mulberry paper, fabric, or colored glass shards and arrange them into a harmonizing design with the branch, taking things away or adding others.
Slowly the language of what needs to be expressed comes together like a beautiful symphony. When finished, I then stand back to let the piece speak to me of what it would like to be titled and what feeling it creates in relation to events in my life. Sometimes its so clear and immediate as if someone said it aloud, and at other times it takes several days to hear a whisper. Each piece contains my emotion and creative perspective of how I see the world combined with the light filled spirit of God, my creator, with whom I walk with for guidance every step of the way.
