Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine for Tom

10 x 10 mixed media collage

by Miki Willa

Happy Valentine's day, everyone. I created this valentine for my husband and actually framed it. It is the first collage I have framed. It is created with five layers of wonderful hand made paper, two hearts of scrapbook paper, and one of wrapping paper. I had great fun selecting the papers, hand tearing the hearts,and figuring out an interesting layout. There was no stress to this project, just joy. All creative projects should be this way. That is a big part of my artistic goals for this year.

Speaking of goals, part of my life coaching group homework this week is to work on setting a goal and creating a plan to achieve that goal. I am excited about creating a series of visual odes (see this post) about places I have visited or lived in that left a strong impression with me. In addition to the visual piece, I want to share a story or two about the place. As I get more clear about the goal, I will post about it here. Part of the plan will include an accountability piece. When I was doing a painting a day, I set up this blog to keep me accountable. I think this will be part of my accountability system for this project as well.

I am still working on my artistic freedom manifesto. I will have more photos in the next post.

WIP The Gathering

The Gathering WIP

12 x 18 soft pastels on Wallis Professional White

by Miki Willa

I am having a hard time finishing this painting because I really like what it looks like right now. I like the roughness of the sketch and the contrast of the blues and yellows and oranges. It looks somewhat cartoonish, but gives an idea of what it is all about. I will finish it so it works with the rest of the paintings in the series, but I think I will go back and do some more in this style.

This is a glass furnace at Avalon Glassworks in West Seattle. Son Hugh has just picked up more glass on a bubble that will become a folded plate, or taco. This furnace is very high tech and different than the other ones we have seen. It is opened by pressing down on a pneumatic foot pedal. Very cool.

I have taken the plunge and started a new blog dedicated to my exploration of collage art and visual journaling. You can take a look here.

My first collage

Landscape 1 , 12 x 6 torn paper on 300lb watercolor paper

I finally overcame my fear of trying something new and created this collage. I used paper from magazines, scrapbooking background paper, paper bags that I painted, and some washi paper I had stashed. I also found one of those skeleton leaves in the garden and added that for texture and interest. I decided to do a relatively simple landscape. I wanted to keep it rather simple for a first collage.

I knew the colors I wanted to use and looked for them in my paper stash. I was missing a few, so I took a grocery bag and painted pieces with acrylics. When I paint landscapes, they are pretty realistic in style. I tend to use fairly standard sizes, so I wanted to get away from that with this piece. I think I accomplished my goal here.

I do have a number of technical questions I will have to find answers to. I am sure there must be better mediums out there for attaching everything without all the wrinkles. How do I apply the medium to the pieces of paper without them curling up on themselves, or should I strictly apply the medium to the support. I read about using a tacking iron, and that sounds cool, but the curling up thing would still be an issue. I will sort all of this out soon.

In the meantime, I have a pastel painting on my easel. It is another one in the glass blowing series. I should have it finished in a day or two. I will post it when it is ready.