Two posts today, because I’m likely to get distracted and forget this one.
Into every life must come some garage cleaning.
Like many artists, I have paintings. Big ones, left over from a stint as a commercial decor artist for a company that only wanted canvases 36″ x 24″ or larger. And then promptly went belly up after convincing me to paint for them. Four years later, I’m finding homes for the leftovers, and added incentive to stick with book art and small tapestries. Storage is easier, and I don’t have to deal as much with the big-art-for-big-houses crowd.
This piece, Bronze Oasis, is 36″ x 24″ x 1.5″ acrylic on canvas. It started out life as a pastiche of a current popular decor style (a designer order that also went belly-up with the gallery).
Then I decided to use it as a background for a quickly sketched Asian-type dragon in a steampunk motif. Paint technique is thick slip-trailed black ink, overlaid with bronze green metallic washes.
It’s possible this piece will be donated to an upcoming convention’s charity auction. It’s equally possible that I’ll strip the canvas off the stretcher bars and re-stretch a blank canvas that I can use for more marketable artwork.
Artist’s whim, yanno.
Update May 14, 2014: Yep, it’s too fun a piece to strip off the stretcher bars and put into storage. Once that happens, the odds of me re-stretching it go way down. Time to let someone else enjoy it for a while, so Bronze Oasis is going to be part of the ‘Kids Need To Read’ charity auction and Geek Prom at the upcoming Phoenix ComicCon.
Because the kids, they need to read.
Have you seen some of the sad new studies about how few kids, teens, and young adults read for pleasure? That, with more opportunities to read than ever (print media, e-books, online serials, fan fiction, Tumblr blogs, etc), many teens choose talking on the phone and watching videos. Which is fine – but neither activity gives the brain the same workout as reading.
More than anything else in my teen geek years, the act of reading set me apart from my more-normal junior high and high school peers. I always had a book, ready to go, ready to take me away from crushing boredom or sheer nervous terror.
Books and art. While almost no one respected the fact that I read every chance I got, I earned a tiny bit of social status from my art, something I am thankful for three decades later. Reading showed me new worlds. Art showed me the first steps on how to create and embrace my own.
Time to pay that forward, even a tiny bit.
Above right, here’s what Bronze Oasis looks like now. Finished at last, with hanging wire on the back and its final coat of varnish to bring out the iridescent and metallic paints.
Enjoy your new life, my weird little steampunky circus dragon!