Today’s offerings are about process.  In the past, I have mostly done any piece I was working on in one sitting.  The ones I didn’t often languished because I couldn’t find a way back into them.  Mixed media has changed all that, along with an understanding that changed energy that comes from being in different spaces from start to finish isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  For me it becomes more about channeling the energy then about the end product, which helps me let go of any expectations I may have about how the piece is “supposed to be.”

Here is the final Guardians of the Chesapeake.  I finished it up yesterday. Close ups will show the coloring I put on the white thin-set (see bottom of post).  I’ve discovered that coloring the thin-set works to bring the piece together.  I don’t grout found-object pieces because the pieces aren’t of uniform height and trying to grout tiny little glass pieces to large chunks of ceramic would be a nightmare.  Since the piece is made for display as opposed to be walked on or being a wall that gets wet and dried regularly, just using thin-set works fine – on so many levels!

This piece has really inspired me to push on with mosaics and see where they will lead me!

I also worked some more on my mixed media on paper piece that I started the first day of AEDM.  It sat for a while with the pieces sitting on it because I was focused on the mosaic.  Yesterday I secured the pieces with gel media and started laying down an under layer of paint – something I’ve never ever done before but thought it wouldn’t hurt to try.  I found that taking a picture of the painting actually helped me see where I want to take it from it – the hair will definitely change, and next go round you will see over colors.  I think this piece is discovery work for me as I am trying steps I haven’t used but have seen used and am curious about.  Again, it becomes more about the process than the final piece.  You may remember that this painting is already on top of another painting whose time had come.

Wylde Women’s Wisdom

[In support of the Occupy Wall Street encampments and the people in them who are on a journey of leadership and who are creating a paradigm of process without having attachment to a specified end result (that the establishment could then attack).  How can you know where you’re going if no one has ever been there before?  Go OWS!]

Women leaders must be revolutionaries.  let me hasten to say what I mean when I call for women to be revolutionaries.  A revolutionary is someone who believes that things can change and she works to bring about that change.  Sojourner Truth was a revolutionary because she believed that slavery was wrong and she worked diligently to end it. Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole

If you don’t like the way the world is, change it.  You just have to do it one step at a time.  Marian Wright Edelman

If one woman, one day in a garden, could get the world turned upside down, then it seems to me that all women can get it right side up again.  Sojourner Truth

How would you like the story to change?  Pick a strand and pull.  Tammy Vitale

See the difference?