......comments by Candace
Started and titled by Mario this piece had a delicate pencil drawing of a face in wash of brown ink...a wallpaper collage...
It went next to Maryam...and stayed with her for a long time....the piece emerged with incense paper collage and some intricate trees on the bottom, some beads, a coin glued to it, a tiny red thread hanging off the lower right corner was my favorite touch....the blood line. Next the piece went to Shelley..who covered it with rice paper and added some delicate geometric lines, arcs, spatters, which are intregal with her work and an abstract portion on one side which looked to me like an eye.
When the piece came to me...... I thought it was finished and despaired of being able to find a way into it. I kept feeling that the beads looked like they had a membrane containing them...and I was so bothered by that, the first thing I did was to smash the beads with a hammer...which left a devastation on the page. An uncharacteristic, decisive and war-like action. Then I started working with a geometric pattern of an octagonal tile floor...which I think of as a “grounding” provided by family...which can be taken several ways. This area grew and covered the eye which was scrutinizing me as I worked! I then added roots to the orange triangle at the top of the page. The roots of ancestors as metaphor, growing downward, connecting us to the past.
An area in the middle of the page became a nest-like shape of sharp points..... like family, prickly ....but a a birth place, an oasis. Emblematic of family relationships.... loving, prickly, similar, polar opposite, intense, complicated, same cloth , different patterns, but still the place of origins, the safe haven, bloodlines. The last thing I did was splatter some blood red watercolor....the blood of family....staining the page. I ended up mesmerised by what I had done..in that it contained agressive action, respect for the concept suggested by the title, a bit warlike in my approach, ending with tenderness, history, humor and blood. Now, satisfied with the piece. I e-mailed Termeh...... her turn to finish the piece.
1 comment:
I'm working on this one now. It's a taugh one, a lot going on but, not as taugh as the one before it, "bow to your chair"!
In fact, I began working on it as soon as I received it. Who knows how long it will take but so far, it's going well.
It's taugh being the last person on a piece. There's already so much going on and often you have to go over other people's work. I'm learning to accept that as a part of the process/experience. I think Shelly's been a great influence in that regard!
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