Sunday, June 29, 2008

April - Ancestors

Here is my piece for the theme called "Ancestors".



In it I used a picture of two af my grandparents on the top of the canvas. I used a paint over technique I had heard of recently to alter their faces a little so it looks like they could almost be anyone. A bit illusory because I never actually knew them. They look pretty formal, which is something I do associate with another country and another time. Between them are three people I stencilled in, "ghosts", people from the past. Underneath in the photo are a few people with my mother on the left studying to become Canadian citizens. I had fun altering their faces and messing with their eyes. All these people may be gone now. Sort of spooky, don't you think?

I attached an old fraying piece of my family's lace to the center dividing it almost in half. With some of the remaining netting from the lace, I painted and then pressed on the pattern to make a slight vignette feeling.

My second one is for the theme called "Animal Dreams".



For this one I used the interactive program called "the scribbler" from zefrank to make a number of surreal looking animals. From the bottom left are: a horse, dreaming of a dog and a snake - what it is comfortable with and what it fears, the dog, dreaming of a cat and a rabbit - things dogs chase and react to, the cat, dreaming of wings, a bird and a mouse, and whatever the others are dreaming of is a mystery for this piece. They each have their own comfortable pillow because since I am human, I usually project my own motivations onto animals and it also makes them all look cozy. This is fantasy after all!

I used a little bit of glass glitter in three colors to give it a twinkly party atmosphere. Go ahead, you can laugh but I think the animals look pretty good.

Good things come to those who complete their projects.

4 comments:

Judy Wise said...

" Good things come to those who complete their projects" ...

That explains why there's nothing in my stocking but a lump of coal. Nice work. xo

Laurie Mika said...

Wow, 2 done in one fell swoop! Very nice indeed. Both pieces are very inventive and I knew the minute that I saw them that they were yours!
Now on to the tough one....RIP!
xoxo, Laurie

Anonymous said...

THANKS!

Robin said...

Catherine, I totally love the way you painted the ancestor faces!!! Both of these pieces are very powerful to me. Thanks for writing about the techniques you used for Animal Dreams... it has an Aboriginal or cave art feel to it, and the innocence one would expect in an animal's dream. The pillows work as dream bubbles too.