On a High...No drugs Necessary!

My days and nights have been filled with thoughts about mixed-media/collage pieces....materials, papers, adhesives, possibilities, textures, sources. And I've been having a wonderful time exploring this method of working, as well as incorporating it within my acrylic paintings. The last two portraits I painted have led me back to this method of working, and I wasn't even searching. It was one of those mystical doors that opened to me and led me into a garden of endlessly fruitful variables from which to choose. I didn't have to drink a magic potion, or even take a bite from an inviting cookie. I just found myself drawn further and further into the forest of no return. Lest you get scared, I need to let you know that This is all a GOOD THING! I'm not resisting at all! The ideas just keep coming!

This method of working is by no means new to me. I have constructed parts of paintings out of corrugation to make them three dimensional, and I have explored combining many kinds of paper in one painting, painting over their inviting textures, letting them orchestrate all that would take place on the picture surface. As usual, it was the give and take of the materials directing me, and me molding them according to my own will. Together we get the job done, me and the materials. I have to say that neither of us could get the job done without the other.

I will have more to say about this in the future, even digging back through my archives to review earlier, but different, examples of this kind of work of mine.