So Many.....

Hello !

It's another day....getting another day is always a good thing.

Since it is Sunday, normally I'd be on my way to Mom's now as it is noon here. Something came up though on her side and late last night I found that I would not be going out today. That leaves me to my own devices for the entire day and let me slow things down, stay up till the wee hours of the morning and sleep in to make up for it. Freestyling....just the way I like it.

Since I still work a 40+ hour week, although I work at home, I am still on set hours, so staying up to the middle of the night playing at my art desk only gets to happen on Friday and Saturday nights, unless I take a vacation day. Most weekends, I do take full advantage of being able to stay up as late as I want.

This past Friday night, I spent the early evening doing things around the house and then I got a little tired in the late evening and decided to take a little nap, after which, I would get over to my art table and play a while. I asked alexa to set a 45 minute timer and happily drifted off to sleep in my favorite chair. Two hours later, I was waking up, a little groggy and wondering how on earth that happened. I'm sure the timer probably went off and I told alexa to stop it and instead of getting up, fell immediately back to sleep instead. Phooey!....anyway, I thought I was going to just take a shower and actually go to bed, but after my shower I was revived, slipped over to my art table and did not go back to bed till 5:30 am Saturday morning. I didn't used to be a night owl, but as I have aged and played heavier in artsy stuff, that is how I think I would be all the time if I was not working. Sleep whenever I wanted too, no regard to time of day or night.

So! At 5:30 I padded through the house, turning lights off, heading to my bed. I was feeling quite content as I turned off the light and slid into bed. As I was pulling the covers over myself, a song was in my head. It was Time To Say Goodbye, done by Andre Bocelli and Sarah Brighten. I have not actually listened to that song in a long time, but there it was, playing as I snuggled in. I smiled to myself and thought "So many...." So many beautiful and fun songs to hear, so many pretty paint colors and so many art pieces to see, so many sweet and good things to experience. I told alexa to play pink noise and she did. As I lay there with my eyes closed, abstract painting, after painting, after painting slowly appeared as if I was seeing them on the back of my eyelids. The were not paintings I had seen before, but paintings that were only in my mind and new in that moment. This has happened to me many times. The only unfortunate thing is, they don't stay on the surface of my brain. They are not there the next morning for me to try to put down on canvas. I always remember they were colorful, but I can't see them individually anymore. A few times in the past I have tried to get up, grab my pen and tablet and describe and/or make a rough drawing so that maybe I could pull them back up the next day and yet, they are never still there. Anyway, it was fun to get to see the art show as I drifted off to sleep. I wish there was a way to video them. 🙂

Ok! So what is this mess I'm showing today?

I like to watch art videos on youtube through my firestick on my TV for fun ideas to try and for company while I'm at my art desk. An artist was doing fun things and one thing was scrolls, where some sort of art was created on a long strip of paper or whatever and when done, attached to a stick or dowel of some sort and rolled up like a scroll. She talked about how scrolls preceded books and the such. She had made 3 previously and had just displayed them together in a pretty little bowl. Of course rolled up, you couldn't see the art that was on the inside, but the scrolls were loose and the back of the scroll paper had been painted or dyed a little, so you could see various edges and it did look right artsy together like that. She acknowledged you could do multiple things with them.... and so on and so on.

In the last week or more, after seeing the video, I decided to play with the idea. I thought over what I might have that I could make a length and remembered this packing paper that Amazon is using now. I'm sure it is on a roll when it starts out and is scored at intervals. They scrunch it up and use it for packing. I had saved a little of it in case I wanted to make painted papers for collaging sometime. I didn't want to start out with an appropriate length for a real scroll, just a swatch to test out things and then see if it would roll up when done and .... you know.

I blotted a little phthalo blue on the back and front as a starting base. phthalo blue is such a beautiful blue.

Then I began to add bits of collage paper scraps randomly till the little strip was covered. I then added string and more bits of paper on top and put blue, yellow and pink inks here and there around the edges of the individual scrap pieces and blended them with my fingers and blotted them with paper towel.

After it was dry I attempted to roll it up, even though it isn't that long. I could do it, even though the paper was stiffer now with the layers of paper and dried glue. I was happy with my tester piece and it had been fun to make. I didn't leave it curled up though.

After it laid around on my desk here and there for a few days, I found that this little slip of paper really appealed to my creative eye for some reason and soon, I knew I wanted to keep it. I didn't want to roll it though as it should be longer for that and I didn't want to tear it up and use it in some other collage either, although that certainly was an alternative.

I still don't know which way I will make that happen, but last night I looked through my canvases to see what I had that might work. The closest I could come was this long narrow canvas. It is a little too long, so would need a small medallion or small piece of collage to balance it out. I played with it a little in the wee hours, without gluing anything down. I love that the camera phone gives me the opportunity to audition multiple options to compare. I am not determined that it go on this canvas though and will probably play with it a bit more before making the final decision. I will probably paint the canvas a plain color first too if I use it.

This post was a lot of words, wasn't it? Especially to show art that is not finished. I'll include a photo sometime later, whenever I decide what to do.

Thank you for coming over. I hope you are having a wonderful day or evening, whatever time it is where you are.

Love you !

Jacey