A Few Lines...

(To read full post you may need to click on post title and view in your browser.)

I'm finishing up a small series of collage postcards I'm calling 'a few lines' and it seems good timing to start up the blog again. Thought I'd be back January and here it's July already! Nevertheless, hoping to reconnect with a few lines to you.

One evening I came across the print scrap that became the flower pot above. I snipped it out and dug around for something to be the plant (samples below).

You might remember how I often overprint patterned origami paper with my own hand-carved blocks. These prints (below) provided a lot of twiggy fodder!

Playing around, I decided a tall format to accomodate the flowers and twigs was the way to go. By chance, there was a stack of 9-cm-wide cardstock offcuts handy and I cut them down to 23-cm-long to fit a standard #10 envelope (the narrow one often used for business correspondence).

Thought I might make two or three of these collage postcards but got absorbed and kept going. This is what I love about an art practice. You get an idea and, hours later, you have something in hand. It didn't exist that morning and now it does. At least that's how it often is for me. I'm attracted to bits of paper, move them around and eventually they turn into something. That bit of pink and brown print reminded me of a flower pot and next thing there were days of digging through the scrap bins for pots and plants.

Coming across bits of prints is like running into old friends. As I cut and pasted, I remembered carving the stamps or blocks. I was often dissatisfied at the time but now I saw my work with fresh eyes. It was relaxing and fun to manipulate them into new compositions and -- as it always is with a series -- take chances and try things out to see "what happens if..."

A garden at night is magical and I added moons.

I tried a few horizontal compositions.

As I went along, things got looser and more experimental. 

And then, as always happens, I was done with the series. Whatever had absorbed me and drew me along disappeared. So I turned my attention to the backs, had fun coming up with the series title 'a few lines', added my web site and affixed a little decorative scrap.

I always learn so much with a series. This time I got comfortable with the idea I'm happiest with my work when there is a lot of white space. I love the richly layered work of other artists but it's a spare composition that calls to me for my own stuff.

Hoping to drop a few lines in another few weeks. Until then, happy summer!