From The Heart

My scraps come from old magazines, calendars, greeting cards, brochures. Interesting patterns and textures are what usually catch my eye. In this one, there’s even a scrap from a failed paper-making venture – (something I may get back to). I had formed my handmade paper by pushing it into the pattern of a vintage pressed glass plate. But once dry, it did not lift off well. Still, I kept scraps of it because of the cool embossed texture. Click on the image above to enlarge it, and you will easily see the pale pink scrap on the extreme right side of the heart.

The background was then built up with paints scruffed on roughly in white, buff, and shades of blue. This of course covered up much of the “secret” words of the first layer – but I like to know that they are buried at the heart of this piece. The background needed more texture in order to “hold its own” against the central heart, so I glued down scraps of various papers here and there, and didn’t worry about wrinkles. Some of the tissues were in shades of ochre which brought out the orange shades in the heart, and I liked that. I even added a scrap from a gel-transfer workshop I had done. It was part of a picture of pinecone, and it was semi-transparent. It’s quite large and you will see it at the lower left beside the heart.

The eye was beginning to wander off the page in all directions. I was liking some of the purple shades in the heart, so I found some purple scraps that I could place around the border to pull the eye back in. I was also liking some of the green bits that were showing in the heart scraps, so I decided to emphasize those with paint, and echo them with sweeps of green here and there in the background. Working back and forth between the heart and the background, I darkened some areas and lightened others to provide balance and contrast. The deep blue and orange scrap on the lower left of the heart was one of the last pieces added, to balance that dark splotch on the background to the right of the heart. Drips of acrylic ink, some of them made drippier by a spritz from my spray water bottle added more interest.

Now came the part that I always think is the most fun in collage work. I had gathered a lot of words cut from magazines. Choosing what works, trying them in different places on the piece, and finding unexpected juxtapositions is what I like best – Things like “Just for Fun – That’s why” and “Live, Love, Stir things up” are my two favorites in this piece. They literally fell into place!

Once everything was glued down and dry, all that remained was emphasis around the heart, the words, and the edges with water soluble crayons, and adding a few final “remarks” with white acrylic pen. Truly “From The Heart”.