Friday, January 2, 2009

. . . collaged in brown




and brownish tones. I used some dark brown latex paint left over from my furniture painting enterprise of this past summer to paint a sheet of tissue paper a solid brown. I then laid other pieces of tissue paper over that solid sheet to pick up excess paint and obtained various "monoprints." Then I used the brush and flicked the last of the brown paint onto yet another sheet of tissue paper, stamped it with the plastic cross-stitch grid, and followed that with some flicks of white. I have all the brown paper I will need for quite a while.


After I glued down the brown and the texture-painted white tissue paper on this collage, I added bits and pieces of tans from old books, brown kraft paper that I had wet and then let dry, etc. Then I put a piece of the speckled tissue paper over the top of the whole thing, letting the brown speckles show up on the white and the vice versa. The three squares come from a sheet of tissue paper that I stamped and stencilled last week. I really like how the unpainted parts of the tissue paper seem to disappear into the background when glued into place. I feel like I have made some kind of great discovery, but of course, that can't be true. . . everything's already been figured out, I'm sure, by someone else, but figuring it out for yourself makes you feel creative and brilliant, doesn't it?

7 comments:

Leslie Avon Miller said...

I love this collage....

Anonymous said...

Mary,

I'm really enjoying your collage work. When you describe your process, it becomes clear just how much goes into making these pieces. Layers and layers of thought, technique and, of course, paper and paint!

Do you really think everything has been figured out by someone already? Seems like it must have been, I guess. Personal discovery still trumps someone else having done it already, as you say.

Jeane Myers said...

this is so rich! - wonderful work....

Mary Buek said...

Leslie and Jeane: Thanks so much for your comments. I'm glad you like this piece; I do too.

Bob, your comments always make me think. A good thing? Anyway, I should amend my statement by saying that everything I figure out by myself I later find someone else has already figured out. That just says something about my creativity. I am only innovative to myself.

Seth said...

Fantastic collage Mary. Great layering and I love the rich strip of browns in the middle.

Mary Buek said...

Thank you, Seth. I have been following your blog postings and your etsy store. I really like what you're doing with the hardware. I have a ton of that sort of stuff hanging around; I wonder why I have never thought of using it like that. Love those rusty bits.

RosieK said...

Really generous of you to share your working process - love the collages they are so rich and earthy - thanks for your blog - you are very welcome to pop over to mine too sometime