DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW

This past week has been such a relief with the mid-term elections over and the sense of a new beginning away from the rancor and anxiety that has possessed so many people including me over the last seven years. That feeling of relief matches my uplifted feelings as I walk into my workroom. Here is a place where I can survey unfinished pieces and explore new ways to work on them and be happy.

I step over a stack of pieces I've put aside for another day. I picked an accordion folded piece that I've puzzled over repeatedly. I haven't decided whether to leave it alone as a long, 3-dimensional work or attach a cover so that I can fold the pages into a book. I have a separate piece that I am considering as a book cover. I will keep fiddling with ideas.

 

One of my favorite methods to reassess what I've done is to rotate the paper upside down. This technique is one of the best lessons that I've learned from making art. Looking at something from a different perspective pulls me away from my self-assurance that what I created the first time is perfect. I can open my mind to other possibilities. I can see what I need to do to make value adjustments, spatial rearrangements, changes in color, and more. 

I belong to the Global HeART Postcard Swap group. Three blank postcards wait on my table today. Each season we are given a theme to work on. I've cut up some watercolors that didn't work and now I've rearranged them on the blank postcards. I took a photo of the three once I glued the watercolor strips down. Then I turned them upside down and realized that a couple of them look better that way. Somewhere on the postcards, I will letter this season's theme, "Thankful."

Which way looks better?  Sometimes it helps to turn artwork in a different direction

The theme of thankfulness also makes me think about why I feel thankful this week. First, I am grateful for a life full of rich experiences, for wanderings that have taken me off my chosen path, for beauty I've found in cracks, and for the hands that have reached out to me in support and friendship and for developing the ability to reach back.

To my list, I added a thank you that democracy won this week over selfishness and greed.

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Don't miss out on Pacific Art League's annual member exhibition. 

I have a piece displayed among the artwork.

All in the Eye of the Beholder by Martha Slavin