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5/06/2015

Grungy, Messy and Mysterious

I don't like to show unfinished pieces but I'm finding I am doing it more often. Because I have ADD where art is concerned, I have a bazillion different things in progress. I mean I have a lot of canvases that I've set aside for years. Do you do that? How do you feel about sharing something that's not finished? I came across Roxanne Coble's work before I knew she was a guest teacher at 21 Secrets. I found I was drawn to her style. She suggested to us to work in areas. I call it little fragments. The pages seem fragmented yet they're not. In the end they all blend into one. It's almost as if each section of the piece tells a story and the story is in your imagination. I dunno. I find her work grungy, messy, and mysterious all at once and I like that. These couple of pieces are based on or inspired by Roxanne Coble's art journaling process. They don't feel or look finished to me. Maybe I'll return to show you what they look like when I feel they are. Roxanne Coble's process is altering a book to use as her art journal. I like that idea. I also like the idea that what's on the pages that are being altered often are the inspiration to what follows. With mine, I left certain images because they took me in another direction. They took me to the next fragment. I also like that there is no use of someone else's stencils or stamps. Mark making was all by the artist's hand. That's refreshing to me. I had an old sort of periodical magazine. Not hard cover but the pages are thicker than a normal magazine. I chose to add some of my vintage family photos. I am reminded by Roxanne saying how long it sometimes takes her to finish a page as there are so many layers, so she has many pages going on at the same time. And I agree, it's kind of cool to have a bunch of backgrounds laid down and then you come back to it for the final doodling phase. So, here are a couple of unfinished pages inspired by her workshop Fragments and Mysteries.

4 comments:

  1. I'm drawn in by the second spread. :) I wonder where it will take you?

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  2. I don't mind sharing unfinished works as you can see by my last couple of posts. I hope that it tempts people back to see the finished piece.
    These pages are very striking and I think you have a great talent for adding images to your artwork as the seem to blend in to your backgrounds seamlessly.

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  3. what a wonderful write up - and I'm loving these spreads! xo

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  4. I'm not big on sharing wip and only do it if I like the piece at that layer. I do have unfinished canvases too! I like the idea of doing sections at a time...and then looking back on them and seeing new bits to add. Myself I do a bunch of background pages at a time because I love splashing colour around... then I search the page for images... I rarely use stencils. I fool myself thinking I might and I have on occasion but 90 percent is just plain old me... lol
    Thanks for sharing....just catching up on your blog!

    Hugs Giggles

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