Re-Visiting An Unfinished Artwork....

I had played with a couple of ideas back in the winter and somehow forgot about those early beginnings until this past weekend. Perhaps my renewed interest in going back to that little creative 'orphan' was sparked by my re-visiting of the book I've mentioned before 'Rethinking Acrylic' by Patty Brady. I opened this creative goldmine of endless ideas at random and I was immediately hooked on a clever and simple Resist project, namely, using Clear Tar Gel as a 'resisting' element of the painting. I've been having lots of fun with exploring the unlimited realm of color and texture from yet another perspective and in the process I completed my unfinished mixed media painting.

It seems to me that this beautiful word, in this particular instant denoting a term, Resist, have acquired a slightly negative, borderline neutral, emotional connotation in English language... And yet, a Resist technique, one of countless already utilized by artists from 'all walks of mediums', can bestow unexpected freshens upon an artwork, an interesting and integral part of the composition that would be otherwise difficult to express, was it not for the dear, old Resist.... Since the very first time I've heard of this strong-sounding word as referred to an art technique I felt a very palpable attraction to using it more often in my meandering explorations and spread the word in hopes of finding more life-long fans of this enchanting creative play ~ seek-and-hide ~ in art making.

Back in March I applied an oval-shaped layer of Crackle Paste to a canvas board....

Next, I lined up and prepared a mixture of Acrylic Glaze (Satin) containing Interference Red Oxide, Quinacridone/ Nickel Azo Gold, and Raw Umber....

.... and later applied it to the entire surface of the canvas board.

I applied a thined-down layer of Golden Cobalt Teal to the canvas by using a palette knife.

I applied a thin layer of Glass Bead gel in selected areas and let it dry overnight.

I indulged myself with more smaller and larger lid impressions against the surface. I used over a dozen random paint colors and make numerous impressions of varied colors one on top of another.

Here comes the Resist - I dripped Clear Tar Gel off my palette knife all over the surface and let it dry.

Later in the process I painted the surface with somewhat thinned down acrylic paints such as Golden Liquid Acrylics Iridescent Bright Gold (Fine), Viridian Green Hue, Paynes Gray, and Van Dyke Brown Hue.

Here's a close-up of the brush strokes, I tried to wipe the excess paint in order to bring the Resist areas to the font. You can notice the irregular shapes of the initial application of Clear Tar Gel to the top right of the brush, gently covered by tiny layers of color.

I'm still pondering over a title for my painting.....

Its dimensions are 11''x14'' canvas board.

I'd love to learn about your experiences with Resists...... any fun, unexpected tricks you'd like to share?

P.S.

I found out this afternoon that my 4-collage series titled '150 N. Vintage Ave.' has been accepted into a juried exhibition @ 'Learning Product Expo 2009'. You can see the journey from birth to completion of my collage series in the following posts: May 17 & May 18.

'150 N. Vintage Ave.'

4 (9''x9'')

Mixed Media Collages on Canvas

Tatiana Kuzyk

5/09

Let It Be Light! Please.

Yes.... the power 'went out on me' last evening and hasn't 'come back' yet! I envy my neighbors power generator running its motor overnight and this morning..... sending energy to a fridge, AC, and lamps, lamps, lamps...

Perhaps a musician wouldn't care much about darkness enveloping one's surroundings when a Muse knocks on the door of imagination, but being a visual artist who doesn't own a pair of night vision goggles.... puts my non-existent patience to a harsh test at such times. Only in the permeating darkness and silence do we realize, become uncomfortably aware of, the multitude of power-sourced distractions we depend on every moment of the day.... cell phone's battery begging for a re-charge, as does my laptop, underground fence becomes power-less, yet my dog, Joy, seems to be completely unaware of it as she diligently keeps her distance from the sidewalk..... Thank God for coffee shops with free power outlets and WiFi service, so I can remedy my increasing stimulus withdraw.....

Last night I lighted close to a dozen candles and decided to catch up on some 'extra-curricular' reading. Even though 'candle light art making' idea sounded charming, it reminded me more of blindfolded art therapy exercises and my mood wasn't serene enough to engage in such activity (to say the least). As I observed my surroundings being tenderly kissed by flickering candles, every object had become transformed into a somewhat dramatic, darkened artifact..... dark reflection of the room deep inside the mirror sent me back in time couple centuries ~ reflecting how life was for people who had to be observant and in tune with the flow of time, their days beginning with the first rays of sun waking the world to a new, sweet day..... then gently wining down with the approaching dusk. There's such a visual metamorphosis from the world we see in daylight to the one visible to us when the Sun begins to set. I don't think we are aware of this 'costume change' thanks to the modern marvel of electricity. There's a great depth and dark beauty in our world once the Universal Lights Go Out.... it tests the validity of our day-light, or artificially lighted, perceptions.... did the object itself change with a new intensity of light reflecting off it, or is it a visual joke our optical apparatus plays on us? Maybe it's not about a particular answer to this question, but perhaps a gentle inkling reminding us to stay conscious in the moment, more sensually, by engaging all our senses and letting our World reveal Itself to us anew....

Bold & Beautiful...

That's what comes to my mind when I look at my work-in-progress 'Cre8 Art' ~ bold, semi-loud color theme with underlying tapestry of pasted together comics. I subdued the comics' imagery with some smudging of black and white gesso washes. That entire piece is a good example of why 'art making instruction' is an oxymoron of an expression.... I went back and forth between different paint color applications so many times that my camera's memory stick is almost full!... and that does not include gel and varnish layers. Just as I thought the piece was finally completed and varnish had dried ~ turns out ~ more is to be added to this one.

At this point I'm waiting for DickBlick to finaaaaly have in stock Self-Leveling Gel that will be applied to the entire piece. Golden Paints is the only manufacturer of this Divine product and I haven't found any other brand coming close with the properties of a substitute one. As an alternative, a Clear Tar Gel could be a resigned alternative if..... you're looking for exceptional clarity. However it's lacking in self-leveling properties, as it is meant to add some subtle texture. So, I'm hanging on to the shreds of my patience for now and...

... in the meantime I have moved on to my 'table top' mandala I have mentioned in the previous post. So far, the creation of my mandala has been reminiscent of cake decorating ~ this quick refresher of my baking skills may come handy in two weeks when I'm bound to throw two Birthday Parties, two days in a row! One for a four-year-old and, the next day, for a thirty-six-year-young one....

Going back to my project, I used an empty plastic container from that'd held feta cheese and worked its shape into a 1/3'' thick layer of Golden Extra Heavy Gel (Gloss) and, unaccounted for number of, liquid and heavy body acrylic colors mixture. Due to the tropical levels of humidity in the static air of Chicagoland my artwork has at least one more day of drying time ahead of itself....

Let's begin with 'Cre8 Art' ~ you can see the beginning of that piece in my posts from 5/28/2009 & 06/03/2009

'Smudging' black gesso wash all over the surface.

Toning down lettering with diluted black gesso....

First I painted selected letters (A, R, T) with Golden Liquid Acrylics Naples Yellow Hue, followed by a layer of Payness Gray on C & E. By the way, those two colors + Pyrrole Red are my 'IT' colors of the moment. I'm not planning on over-using them.... just admiring.... the interplay of depth and solidity, contrast and harmony.... stunning!

Here's the reason for Pyrrole Red. The '8', as in the pronunciation of 'ate' at the end of ~ CRE-ATE'. Please know that it may seem and sound quiet obvious to you, but I did some 'clinical trials' and some 'one' thought the Eight looked more like 'two con-joined circles' than a number 8. Just making sure I'm not the only one inspired by 'word-games' here.... moving swiftly along to ....

.... more Naples Yellow Hue applied on letters.....

I thought more water-diluted gesso applied sporadically with a make-up sponge wedge in selected areas may be what the piece needed at the moment.

.... where, oh, where is my self-leveling gel???? You... (SLG).... complete me....

Couple shots of my mandala making adventures:

At this 'point in the game' my mandala may seem like a cutting board awaiting some culinary acrobatics, but NO! Here comes Extra Heavy Gel (Gloss) acting as a defining agent in this, yet unknown, creative feast....

A helping of frosting, anyone???

Any creative associations to..... whatever it looks like? Maybe a shrink would like to use this image in one of those infamous 'free association' cards? Wondering.... what would it say about my 'acrylic frosting'???

There's something veeery playful, spontaneous, freeing, FUN, creative, expressive.... about this quiet tangible inter-play of color, gel, palette knife and my hand. I love it. I encourage you to try it out ~ this process is completely mistake-free from the left-brain perspective, hence its inherent fun of creative self-expression...

Working my cheese container into the gel-paint mixture in a somewhat random manner.

I used a small, chisel-shaped color shaper to remove left-over layers, so I could 'get down to the bottom' of my mandala. The black gesso background accentuates and brings the shapes up to life. To be continued....

Finding Art Supplies In Unexpected Places.... Cheap!

I feel like art making right this minute. Last week I bought myself, what's called an 18'' in diameter 'table round', but I will use it as strata for my next mixed media project. As I've alluded to in the previous posts, here again circular shapes are emerging. In fact I've been wanting to make a mixed media mandala on wood for a long while. If you'd like to save money on wooden surfaces I strongly recommend visiting a lumber yard of your local home improvement store. In my case, Menard's leaves the competition in the dust when it comes to pricing, not to mention art supplies stores ~ herein lays part of the reason of my postponing this project. I've been romancing a 10" in diameter round wood panel at DickBlick but its pricing close to $40 just made me re-think the purchase until.... I met my un-primed, solid wood 'table round' and was stunned with its unassuming sticker price..... $16.99! for almost twice the size of the one at Blick's.

Here's what I know, for now, about this, yet-to-be-born mandala on wood. I will start with coating it with two layers of black gesso, so the subsequent textures with have well defined shapes....and, as always, the rest will emerge on its own.

Can't wait to see what will happen!

P.S.

What's your latest creative fever? Which paint colors you just can't get enough of at the moment? (I listed my 'Top 3' on Facebook the other day)

It's A Wrap!

'circulR'

Mixed Media on Wood

2'x2'

Tatiana Kuzyk

I think my latest piece may be ready for the final 'kisses' of varnish. Part of my surprise comes from the fact that it will become my fastest artwork creation to date... majority of my work would go through familiar stages of development, often times testing my faith and patience simultaneously. But not this one.

I've been drawn to the circular shapes for a while now and have found a fun companion in numerous lids that assist me in leaving their impressions adorned with variety of paint colors on the surface of painting. Circle is a universal symbol of wholeness, most often referred to as 'mandala,' though mandala can be represented, for example by a square or any 2D figure with inherent perfect geometry. Carl Gustav Jung was a XX-ieth century Swiss psychiatrist who re-introduced mandala to the modern world. What's more he had taught how to use mandala making for inner growth, enrichment through the process he called 'active imagination.' In Jungian terms, mandala initiates a dialog between one's unconscious and a conscious part of our psyche using the only language our unconscious uses - symbols. We can analyze and learn from those highly personal and healing images that are expressed through our creativity and allow that inner dialog to unfold. It may sound a bit 'out-there' but actually each one of us engages every night in that symbolic dialog with our unconscious through dreams. Taking time to listen and allow those beautiful and nurturing image-symbols to come to our conscious awareness in our waking hours can be an extremely enriching experience, one that words are impotent to even begin to describe...

P.S.

I just found out that my latest article 'Simple Aging Techniques For Mixed Media & Collage' has been published at CreativityPortal.com. To read that 'marathon of step-by-step tutorials' click the above link.

Fun With World's Most Versatile Medium

I'm talking about acrylic paints and gels. Patty Brady, in her book 'Rethinking Acrylic' called acrylics 'world's most versatile medium.' Last night I pushed some creative boundaries and I can say that I don't remember when was the last time I had soooo much fun. I love vivid colors, thick textures and getting my fingers dirty in the process. There's something wonderful about touching whatever is being created. Usually only my eyes get to be fully involved in the process, hence the term ~ visual arts. But the child within me doesn't just want to be a passive observer, she wants to use all her senses in the process. Of course, I exercise caution as I'm working with chemical compounds after all, but the texture of Extra Heavy Gel mixed with paint sooner or later gives into gravity....drip, drip, drip, down my palette knife, down my palm, and I try to stop it before I have to throw away yet another article of clothing.

The piece I was working on last night is a reminiscence of the one my dog chewed on. I used a 2x2 plywood, covered it with two coats of gesso before pulling out a dozen of liquid and heavy body acrylics and a full jar of Extra Heavy Gel Gloss.

That entire process was very expressive and fluid as I picked out each color one by one, applied where it 'wanted' to find its place and continued to work the paint, and later Extra Heavy Gel, into the surface. Once it felt finished I used a plastic lid from one of the 8oz. gel jars and begun to impress it onto the paint-gel mixture. In some places I opted for more pressure and kept on twisting the lid around a bit for an even more dramatic impression.

I strongly encourage you to just go X-Wilde with your paints, get a cheap strata (in my case about $3 for four square feet of painting surface!) and the cheapest paints, pastels, or remnants of interior paint will do (in fact Home Depot has a section called "Oops Paint" - seriously- it's not by the paint department, usually somewhere in the back, ask someone to be directed there. I bought a one quart can of paint for $1 and a gallon can goes for $5. More importantly a lot of those 'odd colors' such as fuchsia or lime green, are fun for an artist and a pain in the $^%^&*& for a store to sell since there is no returns on mixed paint)

P.S.

For anyone interested I can post the long, long list of all paint colors I used in my painting , but at this point you've scrolled down enough if you're reading these words....

...Walk On....

I have these six tomato plants sitting in my family room waiting to be finally planted and I think their number in line may be coming up later today. I hope. Acute Overcommitment Syndrome ~ has been my new companion in life since late winter and I just can't part ways with it.... oh, the numerous techniques I tried to free myself form it ~ from 'letting go' to following a 'to-do list' daily, and my list seemed only to keep expanding exponentially right in front of my painful grimace of surprise!

So, both two of my current art works in-progress, practicing daily lessons from A Course in Miracles, and my Masters curriculum, and my business, and finally planting some perennials, and the six tomato plants, and making progress on my remodeling, and catching up with my articles' submission commitment..... I feel overwhelmed just typing those items from the very top of the list!

I have to write myself a public prescription here, a little Rx for regaining my battered sanity: "Change your focus from a 'large picture' view to a 'one-task-at-a-time'!" 'Mental zooming-in' is a practical lifesaver I've found refuge in numerous times in the past. If I won't narrow down my focus and continue to compulsively insist on having all those commitments crossed out from the to-do list simultaneously, someone else will be writing me prescriptions, and I mean, PRONTO!

Many popular books on time-management advice on the good, 'ol delegating ~ sure, that would just be, well .... groovy. I'd have someone study my curriculum, then write my thesis, and in the spare time that lucky individual, if still alive, will actually get to make art and write an article or two. And for an 'extra credit' I'll throw in keeping my blog up to date with daily posts! Hm, maybe I'm just wasting my valuable time here instead of writing a 'help wanted' ad for Craigslist???

Truth is ~ I don't want to delegate my life to anyone. It's my creation, and just like with my art making, I love it with much attachment. And perhaps the Real lesson, or task for me here, is to Allow myself to go at my own pace. On some days only 'walking' is possible (as the events of last weekend showed me clearly) and then there are times when 'sprint' feels effortless and fun and I can easily march an extra mile.... and herein lays the gift for my Self, bringing back the title and chorus of my favorite U2 song ~ Walk On.

Few snapshots from my recent work, continued from the previous post.... both are 24x18 canvases

I'm using 5" letter stencils' templates to arrange 'Create Art'

I applied a mixture of Golden Acrylic Glazing Liquid, Zinc White, and Iridescent Pearl to the openings of letters' templates.

For a better contrast I decided to paint over the letters with a diluted gesso. More to be created...

After that very heavy layer of Hard Molding Paste finaaaaaly completely dried I applied coat of gesso to the surface. That particular product, molding paste, has a semi-gloss, almost plastic texture that requires multiple layers of paint to finally hide its background. In the past I tried Acrylic Ground For Pastels ~ it yielded better results than just bare molding paste, but left a rough, paint-sucking skin, not to mention that it required an entire 8oz. jar of the product for a single application = $10.89! In this instance gesso is cheap, dries fast and it's a perfect ground for subsequent layers of paint and mediums.

Golden Permanent Violet Dark was used to cover the entire canvas, including all four sides.

Next, I wanted to experiment with Interference Violet (Fine), I applied a thin layer to the surface ~ it's difficult to see it in a photograph, but interference reflects back the metallic quality of color violet (in this example). As a product, it has a white-pearly sheen, but once you paint with it, especially against a darker surface, wow, its magic comes to life!

... a layer of Green Gold is greeting the canvas this time...

I painted selected areas of this piece with either Interference Violet, Interference Green, or Iridescent Pearl to bring forth all design elements.

Remember Self-Leveling Clear Gel? That's the one, let's pour this baby mixed with a tiny bit of Interference Oxide Red, shall we?

Cobalt Teal has been 'shouting' to be included in the process at this point. I dug up a palette knife and granted the wish.... I can't wait to see what will happen next to this cornucopia of color and texture....