Thou Shall Live A Creative Life.

Stenciled (FUN) Art Anyone....?

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Tue, 4 May 2010 19:22:00 -0500

For the longest time I have considered the term 'Senciled Art' as nothing more than an oxymoron in relation to the fine arts.... my most frequent association of employing stencils was related to home decorating projects and occasionally to crafts. Well, all those old ideas were first put to a creative test and then thrown out the window.... I can happily report a permanent change of heart about this wonderful tool. Instead of mis~perceiving it as being limited in its repetitiveness of a single pattern to a 'linear dullness,' I uncovered a rich springboard of creative challenges, provided one is open to test new limits of self-imposed creative boundaries.

My journey in re~discovering stenciled art begun with a spring brochure from Dick Blick which featured curiously stimulating patterns presented in a series of books. During my trip to the store I was drawn to the prominently displayed books, kits and accessories raising the stenciling fever ever so higher.... My heart was stolen by a treasure titled 'Stencil 101 Decor' by Ed Roth which contains not only step-by-step projects' instructions that made my already exhilarated imagination flooding my mind with more projects' ideas my brain could process in a week. However, most importantly this wonder of a book/kit contains a set of 10 12x12 re~usable plastic stencil patterns. Once I brought the book home, I thought to myself 'I guess if I start using the stencils I may have to eat all the words and loud opinions I, at one time, so cherished... Oh, what to heck, maybe instead of eating them, I'll just stencil something.... pronto!'

Thankfully I didn't have to look far for a stencil~ready surface.... the painting I've been slowly working on (refer back to the previous post) was calling my name. Not so long ago the idea of bringing a repetitive, structured, linear pattern to an expressive painting which, up until now, has been meandering along a very intuitive path, would have resulted in its very vocal and final dismissal. But somehow, as I'm trying to practice quiet consciously the process of letting go and surrendering to the unknown, I was attracted to embarking onto further experimentation with stencils and particularly by introducing a set of circular patterns to my painting.... with some vague hesitation I decided to give in.... here's what followed.

Once I was set on a particular stencil pattern, I found a center within a painting and used a Prismacolor White color pencil to gently draw the outlines of the circles.

My overall intention for this 'leg of the journey' was to develop a tactile texture while preserving some of the background composition. In other words, I felt that a medium which exhibits both translucent and textural properties would be an ideal candidate. That's how Golden Acrylics Glass Bead Gel 'came into the painting' ~ one messy application at a time....

Because of the size of the stencil, I had to work in a somewhat haphazard manner while applying the Glass Bead Gel, letting some circles dry completely, before moving along onto the next set. I washed and dried the plastic stencil in between each subsequent application (a good practice in strengthening the will power and patience for someone who possesses neither!)....

Once all the elements were dried I realized that there is such thing as 'too much translucency' ~ yes, once you can't see the element itself, you might have gone a tiny bit too far. To remedy this state of affairs I turned for assistance to a diluted application of Golden Liquid Acrylics Iridescent Silver (Fine).... afterwards there's a 'frosty glass' effect to the stenciled shapes and the irregularities of the glass bead gel come even more to life. For the time being the painting feels almost complete, there's a chance though, for a short, unexpected encounter with a thin application of Self-Leveling gel..... just enough to bring out that glossy 'pop' of texture. FYI the dimensions of the painting are 22x28

Should you choose to bless your creative Self with an XXX~Large serving of delicious stenciling here's the book/kit that stole my heart....

In The Process of Letting Go....

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 19:39:00 -0500

As the above painting is gently and peacefully coming into being ~ one messy brush stroke at a time ~ I can't help but wonder how much it reminds me of my personal journey, especially the messy part... I was inspired to experiment with a more expressive and abstract composition while browsing through an online gallery of a friend of mine, Don Larson, who paints mostly nudes. I just fell in love with the very pronounced, chiseled~like brush strokes combined with a strong value variation which he masterfully employs in capturing the beauty and mystery of a human body.

I decided to challenge myself to a larger canvas size and additionally to explore new territories by working with a vertically oriented canvas instead of the usual horizontal placement. I deliberately abstained from taking pictures during the initial stages of painting itself.... more than anything the process was intended to be a safe channel of 'throwing out' from within and directly onto the canvas, through the very spontaneous and 'loose' gestures of my brush over the surface. My intention and hope was to create a sensation of emotional purging, letting go of whatever wanted to come out and letting it find its place on the canvas. I decided to let the paint colors to pick me, rather than the other way around... After I felt a sense of completion ( at the stage that is shown in the top photo) I let the painting sit and wait until the inner urge of continuation returned.... over a week later.

The next phase of working on this painting was marked by development of new layers and texture. Hence, I up~cycled a Starbucks paper cup and filled in half with a mixture of Golden Self-Leveling Gel, Quinacridone Crimson and Interference Oxide Red.

This cloudish ~ reddish mixture should not be mistaken for a serving of a gourmet coffee!

I tilted the canvas and spilled the content the gel/paint mixture over the surface.

Next, I decided to let the gravity assist me in finding even more in this creative mess.

Yet it wasn't until I begun to spread the wet mixture around the canvas with some serious help from a plastic shopping bag, that I actually started laughing.... the tactile delights and messiness of the process reminded me of childhood art projects.

The following day I went back to applying the initial spontaneous brush strokes over the surface, this time by applying a mixture of Golden High Solid Gel (Gloss) with Blick Acrylics Titanium White.

.... it looks that much more paint and gel texture is in the stars for this painting. In the above photo I added a layer of Golden Acrylics High Solid Gel (Gloss), Golden Acrylics Cerulean Blue Deep and Turquois (Phthalo). I feel a strong inclination towards a Glass Bead Gel as a next candidate of the list of possible texture 'contributors'...

On a side note, this week I had a chance to participate in the preview party for the Chicago Art Open at the River East Arts Center, downtown Chicago where one of my paintings 'circul~R' is on display until May 7, 2010. For more info visit the following link ~ Chicago Art Open 2010.

Creative Recycling ~ Interactive Art Installation

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 23:34:00 -0500

t-shirt design prepared for Whole Foods Market

Interactive Art Installation

(for ordering information click here)

Here's a new way to challenge, explore and express your creativity ~ Up~Cycling!

It is a bit 'last minute' to make an announcement, but that's all the time I have at this hour.... April 22nd is celebrated as Earth Day and I've been blessed with having an privilege to coordinate and be a part of an interactive art event to be hosted at Whole Foods Market in Wheaton, IL (for details go the link at the top of the post). The idea for this particular event was born back in February when I was working on my recycled altered photo 'Chinatown' which employed as a strata a Whole Foods brown paper bag and a corrugated cardboard as a background. One thing led to another through a synchronistic chain of events which will culminate in a tomorrow's art installation. I will be working alongside Rachel, a brilliant and very creative store artist and designer in assisting and demonstrating numerous techniques of altering recyclable materials such as plastic containers, vitamin bottles, shopping bags, card boards which will be provided by the store and will also be brought in by the participants. There are many outcomes that we've set out for this event, with the two taking the precedence: 1. to teach Creative Recycling ~ UpCycling 2. to conduct a collection of various recyclable materials to be utilized in the store's existing recycling center. Most importantly my personal intention is to inspire and teach a fun and creative ways to recycle.

We will have tables set up with paints and art supplies for the participants to alter a recyclable item which will later become an element of a hanging art installation in the store.

The following is my statement as printed in the promotional materials for the event:

Up-cycling requires thoughtful, creative planning in order to develop a new product, the rewards of which can be enjoyed for years to come. It’s easy, fun, and practical.

Up-cycling is the process of converting recycleable materials into products of greater value. This process has the ability to instill in its practitioner a sense of environmental responsibility. It can provide a “second life” to products and materials which would otherwise be destined for a landfill. Hybrid creations can result from the process thus combining the physical and functional characteristics of both original items.

On a side note related to Earth Day, my three upCycled artworks are currently on display (see the below photos), until the end of the month, at "UpCycled Art 2010" exhibit at It's Our Earth store in Wheaton, IL (follow the link in a sidebar for more info).

're~Bagging'

Mixed Media Collage on Canvasboard

9x12

step-by-step instructions of this project were published as "Turn Your Shopping Bag into a Collage" (follow the link in the sidebar)

'shRED'

Mixed Media on Canvasboard

9x12

'Chinatown'

Mixed Media on Cardboard

11x14

Mandala.... Universal Symbol of Wholeness

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:20:00 -0500

... as yet untitled...

Mixed Media on Paper

16x20

The research on my masters' thesis becomes more tedious with each passing day, yet also immensely enriching. After months of false~starts, finally I'm moving my feet, or actually my eye balls across the pages and my hand over countless sheets of paper while taking copious notes.... The subject matter is ~ Mandala As a Universal Symbol of Wholeness~ interestingly enough it gives me an opportunity to combine the two favorite areas of self-expression (art and spirituality) by marveling at the depth and intricacies of the mandalas' iconography and symbology from a perspective of visual arts. Additionally, mandalas of the world have been created since the times of prehistoric caves in every culture on Earth as means of providing a visual 'map' for an individual to find the way back to the Center within. Mandala is an archetypal path to wholeness, or more specifically, to realization, or remembrance of our wholeness be it from a psychological standpoint ~ integration of the psyche, an encounter with one's unconscious by establishing and promoting an active dialog between these to distinct entities, as a necessary means to a lasting sense of inner balance. From a spiritual perspective, mandalas (meaning 'circle' in Sanskrit) have been created by Native American Shamans, Tantric Tibetan Buddhists, and spiritual adepts in India for the millenniums. These 'curiously' looking circles, often depict a quiet gruesome imagery symbolizing the 'inner demons' every individual must conquer before reaching a lasting realization of complete wholeness and oneness with All that Is ~ AKA~ enlightenment. Mandalas find they shape imprinted in the micro- and macrocosm ~ from a circular shape of one's eyes' pupils and atoms as building blocks of all physical forms, to the circular orbits and shapes of planets and galaxies....

Drawing and painting mandalas provide a 'container' for emptying ourselves out, ideally done in a spontaneous, no~linear manner. There's no 'magic' or any type of 'specialness' to making mandalas and they are not considered as objects of worship. Being symbolic, mandala could be likened to a symbolic reminder, or a guide posts depicting a 'way back home'....within. In modern psychotherapy mandalas are often encourage to be drawn or painted by patients exhibiting a wide range of maladaptive behaviors, from addictions to A(H)DD, borderline personality disorders and schizophrenia, not to mention their groundbreaking role in art therapy. In the early XX-ieth century Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, begun a consistent practice of drawing a mandala every single day and later decided to implement this method as a mode of therapeutic approach with his patients with great success. His findings has been well documented and adapted in various modes of psychological healing.

If you're not snoring yet, there's only one thing be added, regardless of their specific application, they're fun to draw or paint, there's something very grounding and internally soothing when you let the images come to life inside a circle... recently one of my favorite bloggers posted some fun images of mandalas called 'Zendalas', check it out....

Arranged Marriage ~ Mixed Media & Altered Photography....

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Sun, 7 Mar 2010 20:42:00 -0600

'Focus'

11x14

Mixed Media & Paper on Canvas

Tatiana Kuzyk

.... 'Focus' is a completed artwork from the previous post.... B&W hand colored photo of a landscape ~ mounted on an un~streched canvas...

Historically January & February are marked by a deep introspection and a somewhat dormant extroversion in my life... hence my 'cyber absence'.... In the beginning of February I had to prepare almost all of my artwork for a solo exhibit which will conclude in a week. At that time I did a lot of framing of the pieces which up until then had been basking in a frame~less glory around my house. One thing I learned from my framing experience ~ (mostly installing open~back frames) ~ that the creative development came to a completion for the majority of my artwork, only after a long process of selecting a 'perfect mate' for every single painting and collage.... in the end the final transformation took place... and, to much of my delight, I re~discovered some of my pieces anew....

But let's talk about romancing the altered photographic images and introducing them to the ever more versatile mixed media, acrylics and waterColors... During the last six weeks I did a lot of experimentation with pushing the boundaries of stratum and mediums applied to the selection of B&W photos. As you will soon see, the majority of images are the same and that was a conscious choice on my part since the beginning.... I wanted to use the exact, same image and to discover how it comes to life, or becomes buried under the myriad of 'over~done', 'over~applied' mediums which I use with much abandon... I mostly worked with a standard full-page, letter-size images which I printed on an ink jet printer. Simplicity and ease of duplication was key for me from the perspective of an initial image preparation ~ in other words ~ my outcome was to be able to do a 'show & tell' of the process that could be repeated by anyone having an access to an ink jet printer and an image source. Then the rest, the most stimulating and fun part of the journey was left up to you, the artist....

On a side note, I'd like to address a question that's often being posed regarding the difference between using an image editor software, such as Photoshop or Picasa, and altering a photograph 'by hand.' When it comes to the almost miraculous capabilities of Photoshop in image alteration, the output is always in a ready-to-frame form that could be admired for the technical skills and aesthetic qualities of its creator. However, if you're up for a bold, adventurous journey filled with not only visual delights, but also offering you much treasured tactile feast, unexpected texture development, spontaneous applications of paint and mediums that can result in a 'creative dead~end' and an eventual 'break~through' into a newly emerged layer that turns out to be 'just~the~thing' your photo has been anxiously awaiting for.... Perhaps, in the end, the question is ~ how would like to engage your visual image development process at the moment....? Is it by using your computer mouse? By playing with your paint brushes & palette knives....? or would you forge your very own path, a hybrid of the many techniques that's uniquely yours ~ just like your Creative Self....

In order to prevent any unintentional injuries of your wrist due to excessive scrolling down;) I decided to limit the selection of images posted below.

Both of the following altered B&W photo~journeys begun with the shot I recently took from a parking lot in downtown Chicago. Just like the image from a 'ChinaTown' piece, I'm mesmerized by hanging fire escapes adorning 'the less prominent' side of an old building....

Using a Picasa software, I first cropped the desired image out of the entire photo and later I used B&W filters, sharpening options, shadows & light buttons until I felt that the image was ready to enter a mixed~media playground....

(besides my subjective preference of B&W photos, I suggest for your own project to make sure that the image is sufficiently sharpened and that there's much shadows and light contrast ~ almost to the point of 'overdoing,' because during the printing your image will 'loose' a lot of contrast, especially if printed on a more adventurous background, ie. fabric, brown paper, acrylic skins).

First, I cut out a letter-size piece of water color paper to fit into the ink jet printer and I proceeded to build the under~printing background with a diluted application of Golden Liquid Acrylics Cobalt Turquois mixed with Golden Heavy Body Cobalt Teal.

While the paint was still wet, I gently tapped a tissue against the surface to create a variation in the visual texture. Once the surface was completely dry, I printed the image ( I strongly suggest you first do a test~print to make sure the image and its placement is 'in line' with what you see on your computer screen).

In order to perform any physical manipulation with your printed image, it must first be safely preserved behind a layer of a varnish. I find that only a spray varnish will do the job right ~ it will eliminate the necessity of making any direct contact with the surface by using a brush, which will almost certainly result in an ink bleed. I like to apply a generous coat of Golden Archival Varnish with UVLs, either Satin or Matte.

After the physical 'prepping' of the surface is finally complete, we can smoothly move onto the texture development. I begun the process with two subsequent layers of Golden High Solid Gel (Gloss), followed by two, thick layers of Golden Self-Leveling Gel ~ letting each application to dry before proceeding with the subsequent one. Also, should you choose to work with these products, make sure that your artwork will stay positioned horizontally throughout this process.

By using a black paint marker by Deco Color I accentuated the structure of the building in the photo ~ I drew the lines with a skech~ing hand gestures. Next I applied the last coat of Golden Self-Leveling Gel which always dries to excellent clarity and and a high glossy sheen.

I decided to permanently mount my altered photograph on a 11x14 canvas board using a gel medium as an adhesive. Next I 'framed' the image by applying a heavy, irregular layer of Golden Hard Molding Paste to the exposed canvas board. By choosing a flat angle brush as a tool, I was able to build a ridge~like texture with the paste.

After the sculpting paste had dried overnight, I painted its surface with a black gesso to bring out even more definition form the image of the building.

Finally, a thick layer of Golden Liquid Acrylics Iridescent Silver (Fine) paid the closing credits to this altered photo.

~ the above process had added a contemporary feel to this somewhat 'rugged' imagery by juxtaposing contrasting hues of turquoise, black, and silver ~

Let's see what happens when the same image will be 'endowed' with a more 'age~appropriate' color palette....

This time around I begun with the a mixture of Golden Liquid Acrylics Quinacridone Crimson and Golden Heavy Body Quinacridone Magenta being applied to the surface of a water color paper.

I decided to test drive a Crackle Medium to see how much of an authentic aged look a $2 bottle can bestow on my altered photo.... Here's an interesting piece of information I found out about this product ~ turns out that a fine art supply store does not carry such a must~have of any altered art aficionado! None of the big brands manufacture this fun medium (perhaps one day soon Golden Acrylics or Liquitex will offer such product in their line...?) So far the only brand that blesses us with a Crackle Medium is folkArt which available at any craft store (JoAnn Fabrics, Hobby Lobby, Michaels, etc.)

After the Crackle Medium had dried I painted the surface with a somewhat watered~down layer of Golden Liquid Acrylics Titan Buff and the 'crackling metamorphosis' slowly begun to take place right in front of my eyes...

Following the printing of my photo image I sprayed a generous coat of Golden Archival Varnish w/UVLs (Matte) over the surface.

Using a fine tip, black Deco Colors paint marker I accentuated selected areas of the photo in order to bring out the inherent antiquated character of the image and to create a more 3~dimensional composition.

Nothing creates a more definite tactile texture variation like an un~even application of a High Solid Gel.... I spreaded it across the surface with a palette knife while leaving behind multiple, vertical gelly 'ridges.'

Two steps in one photo: 1. I painted the surface with Golden Liquid Acrylics Quinacridone Nickel Azo while omitting the windows areas of the photograph, 2. With a little help form a palette knife I deposited tiny bits of white gesso along those previously created 'ridges.'

The final touch of a 'once~over' with a paint marker down the fire escapes, windows and door frames....

Though the completed altered photo~painting is not permanently mounted to any particulr background, I had placed it against the surface of a black gesso painted cardboard for the time being...

As I said in the begining of this marathon post, in these two distinct alteration processes, the image itself stayed the same.... yet does it still feel the same to you?

Is There Such A Thing As 'too much' Of Creative Fun....?

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:35:00 -0600

'ChinaTown'

Altered B&W Photograph

Mixed Media & Paper on Wood

15'x21' by Tatiana Kuzyk

When it comes to Creative Fun in the process of art~making, 'too much' turns the preceding expression into an oxymoron.... I've been savoring long hours of indulgence of transforming my B&W photos into something quiet stunning, marked by a definite character of their subject matter re~captured anew through a creative application of a brown paper bag as a strata and element of design in its own right, as well as re~framing of selected elements of the photograph itself through an unexpected application of colored pencils, acrylic gels, paints and mediums, not to mention corrugated cardboard background and an eventual wooden support (not seen in the photos)....

I feel internally re~juvenated by 'pushing the envelope' of my inner resistance in a somewhat unorthodox manners through which the seeming 'boring', visually uninteresting composition can come to life and actually shine, the way it was intended to when my camera first fell in love with the imagery in front of me....

So, let's get off our butts this winter season and pull out some real ugly piX that have been collecting dust in an album or on your hard drive and see how an 'ugly duckling' can become your very own masterpiece.... and I'm not talking 'scrapbooking' here, this process takes a healthy dose of creative courage when it comes to imagery manipulation that is quiet 'physical' in its scope while it reaches the deep recesses of your Creative Self through this wonderful journey.....

To get your creative juices flowing let me throw in few creative 'prompts' by providing an imagination~stimulating list of suggested materials to use in your process:

as a strata experiment with printing your image on fabric, transparency, or a previously printed surface (newspaper, magazine, old poster, calendar, greeting card, your wedding photo...)
use leftover interior latex paint that may collect dust in your basement, or garage to prime the background before printing, or afterwards
stain the printed surface with tea or coffee
cover randomly selected areas of your photos with a sticky tape and paint, or color the rest of the surface, in the end leave, or remove the tape
cover the surface with stamps or stencil images
spill something on the surface: red wine, ink, etc.
burn the edges of your photo (paper only)

.....I think, by now you may be taking a mental stock of the photos you've collected, or find something intriguing online at any of the royalty free image depositories..... the possibilities are endless, my friend....

I look forward to seeing snapshots from your Adventures In Altered Photography....!

Below are few pictures of my latest Altered Photo~Journey, that particular image was taken last fall during one of my walks in the dog park....it is also printed on a brown paper bag which is congruent with the theme of my upcoming exhibition in two weeks....

The original color photo for this project.

....what can a brown shopping bag do for a photograph....? Bless it with beauty, uniqueness while being up~cycled, from the profane to the profound. After all how much of conscious attention do we pay to an 'ordinary' paper bag...?

I used a shape of one of my view finders and a round lid to accentuate few selected areas of the composition with a white charcoal pencil....

A light waterColor wash will create lens~like quality and a series of focal points throughout the surface.

For more contrast I re~drew the contours with a permanent Deco Color paint marker.

After aging the surface with various liquid acrylic paint colors, I set out to fill in the pre~drown shapes with Golden Acrylics Self-Leveling Gel that will bestow some much needed 'glass~like' surface character while extending excellent clarity....The rest of the surface will retain its matte quality for a more dramatic contrast...

After finding an appropriate cardboard backing, I used an Xacto knife to expose its corrugated core.... to be continued.....

Re~Cyled Art Making & Hand Coloring B&W Photos...

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 18:07:00 -0600

I'm re~discovering a new passion through hand coloring B&W photos while re~cycling at the same time... As my new project's deadline is approaching I'm trying to create a few hand colored photographs for a small exhibit (February 12, 2010). I begun the process by asking my 'all time favorite' question 'what if...?' ~ what if I print the photos on the back of a sturdy brown paper bag in order to bring out a rugged, aged feel of the overall composition? Well, turns out that my printer did survive couple runs of folded Whole Foods shopping bags and the quality of printing was surprisingly good for such an overt abuse....

For my 'trial run' I decided to use a last year's photo that I had posted back in the summer as a souvenir from a trip to Chicago's Chinatown ~ I loved the 'visuals' of a back alley adorned with commercial size garbage containers staring up at the sky of hanging fire escapes.... waiting to be finally put to rest by a merciful scrap metal compactor. Though my photo was originally shot in color, B&W can really step up the realism of the subject matter couple of notches... Going back to the coloring~painting part, I had ordered a set of photo colored pencils (I didn't even know that such a category of colored pencils even exists...) which I could only find online. Given the fact that they come with a bottle of a combustible chemical, ground shipping was the only option available for delivery. The chemical by the name 'P.M. Formula' is used as a primer to be lightly applied over the printed surface prior to the coloring process (this substance is a bit stinky, best not to be inhaled).

After my initial pencil coloring process was complete I sprayed the entire surface of the photo with a coat of Golden Archival Varnish w/UVLS in order to seal off the background. Next, I did couple light washes of acrylic colors, predominantly with Golden Liquid Acrylics Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold, and later on I 'played' a bit with a black India ink and a straight application of gesso to the borders of the print using a palette knife.

I decided to take my re~cyling resolve to a new level.... I want to build a backing for my altered photograph by attaching subsequent layers of cardboard that will become a framing strata and support for my re~cycled artwork, or as I found out, there's a new term coined for recycled art: up~cycling... up~cycled art... In the first layer of support I stripped the very top paper layer in a very irregular manner in order to expose the corrugated inner core of the cardboard which became very 'suggestive' of a continuation of the 'aging' process...

I'd love to hear about your ideas for re~cycled, up~cycled, eco, 'green', earth~friendly art?

Working On A Valentine~Inspired Keepsake...

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:29:00 -0600

"loVe ~ forEver"

8''x8'' Mixed Media on gessoboard

The idea for creating this new mixed media keepsake is the result of my desire to write another photo-tutorial article and I thought that I coordinate my project with the upcoming Valentine's Day... First of all I did not realize that it will take me sooooo much time to actually complete it. It turns out that although I had purchased majority of the embellishments in a ready-to-apply form, the process to bringing the entire keepsake to life was bordering on never~ending at times.... But enough of whining, I really like the final result, in fact it turned out to be 'cuter' that I had anticipated, perhaps a bit too scrapbook~y, if you will, however I was aiming at simplicity and ease of the assembling as a vital criterion for writing a how-to article. Perhaps, after all, this soon to be an article project contains all the necessary ingredients to spark one's creative curiosity and venture onto the high waters of an art~making adventure....?

I'll try to stay very brief in my description of the process underneath the below photos as a more in-depth, step-by-step outline will come in the form of my article once it's completed.

I have spent about $30 on black&pink themed embellishments and materials at Michael's

I searched online for 'heart shape templates' and after printing a page I chose one shape that I decided to work with and I cut it out.

I used a strip of and illustration board to outline my hearts and later on I cut the out with an exacto knife.

.... let the long and arduous embellishing process begin... all of the hearts were first covered with a cut out layer of a dictionary page and sealed/glued with a Golden Soft Gel Semi-Gloss

I used a sheet of clear plastic pre-printed with a black, flowery pattern as a background which I attached to the surface with a coat of Golden Self-Leveling Gel and later I applied a thin coat of Liquitex Matte Medium to 'break' the sheen of plastic a bit...

....oh, my four hearts... I used a paper ribbon to cover the outer edges of the hearts with some help from a heating gun... this was first of many tedious task ahead of me...

I felt that a coat of Golden Fluid Acrylics Green Gold followed by a very thin layer of Sap Green would give~off a nice contrasting background to my keepsake while also accentuate its elaborate pattern and add some visual depth by varying the shades of green here and there...

Before I finally arrived at the moment captured at the above photograph, I spend some time on attaching black ribbon to the edges of the keepsake. So, the word 'love' was spelled out with single letters alphabet stickers attached onto a ribbon...

Working with every single heart was definitely a very fun and creatively stimulating task if only I'd pre~planned ahead to make enough time available.... I wanted to create a bit old~distressed yet 'cute' look, so each application of paint was smeared across the surface with a paper towel over and over again...

Rubber stamps have definitely provided their beautiful and texture~rich contribution in bringing my keepsake into existence.

.... image transfers always remind me of my early school years when the process itself of transferring letters onto different surfaces was bordering on hands~on magic for me. Nowadays image transfer papers offer a goldmine of creative ideas and save loooots of time on drawing and painting activities (once again, I chose those handy 'time savers' for the practical purposes of my tutorials).

With more color 'help' from my fluid acrylic paints I filled in some elements of image transfers with a more deeply saturated brush in order to differentiate certain areas of a heart shape...

I weaved a piece of ribbon through an antiquated embellishment...

I spent more time than I wanted to recall on trying to settle on a final placement and arrangement of all four hearts.... the above is one of dozens of combinations my patience was tested upon...

As an additional option I decided to attach four different ribbons with various lenghts across the bottom of the keepsake. Each ribbon was decorated ~ embellished with plastic sticker buttons, mini self-adhesive bows, rubber stamped mini-notes, and more. If the keepsake is to be hung on the wall I think it'd be fun to attach different mementos, photos, old movie tickets to the ribbons, or perhaps a good, old sticky note.... whatever you feel attracted to include in your very own hanging treasure display of affection....

A close-up at a string of a hanging ribbon

.... and zoomming out...

What Does ~ Surrender ~ Mean To You?

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Sat, 2 Jan 2010 18:51:00 -0600

~ Surrender ~ and 'giving up' are not the same in my personal experience. In fact every time I move into ~surrender~ I am offered a sense of strength, hope, and empowerment derived from 'letting go' of the illusory concept of control over circumstances of life and acknowledging the truth of my complete dependence on something much larger than myself. Though the act of ~surrender~ can be very simple in itself, it requires a subtle, yet much resisted, inner shift, one from being a solitary island in this self-created drama called 'my life,' to taking, a quiet literary, leap of faith by recognizing that by my~self I can only get more frustrated, scared, anxious while awaiting for another 'shoe to drop.'

I've noticed that there's a definite buildup of circumstances before my resistance to ~ surrendering ~ begins to melt away, sometimes by a more or less dramatic outburst of tears of relief that I don't have to do it ALL... change it ALL, fix it ALL... all by my~self... There's a sense of gladness that accompanies my ~surrender~ when I slowly realize that I was never meant to 'take care' of my life alone... nor would I've been able to perform such a monumental task when left to rely solely on my own ideas of what's 'right for me.' Once I accept this simple truth, there's a deep, serene sense of Grace that sets in.... finally I begin to remember who I AM and what my part ~ purpose really is...

~ Surrender ~ also offers me a much needed spiritual sustenance in my creative process, especially in times of my 'creative congestion' when instead of awaiting an inkling from my intuition (or whatever you call the place where all the creative ideas originate) I proceed to use a 'cheap fuel' of technique-driven creative self-expression.... every time I give into this tempting alternative and proceed with a somewhat forceful idea development, sooner or later, I find myself stuck with an 'almost~finished' artwork, that most of the time ends up being 'gesso-ed over' and reborn anew once I let go and surrender to the process itself and 'sacrifice' my stubborn 'worship' of the product.... so far I've collected enough of such 'doubtful mementos' of my insistence on taking mental ownership of the creative process that by now my ~surrendering~ slowly turns into a creative practice that is spiritual in its origin.... My intimate experience of ~surrendering~ has been marked by re-newed clarity of purpose, deep sense of inner peace, being more present to the Now, feeling grateful, and most of all ~ Grace...

What's your take on ~surrender~? Do you equate it with a sense of privately admitted weakness or a new-found strength and hope? Do you practice ~surrender~ on your creative journey? How?

Lastly, I'd like to briefly share my experience of last week's creative group process that I was blessed to be a part of. As I alluded to in my previous post, I facilitated an Intuitive Art~Making workshop for women in Aurora, IL last Monday... til this day I feel in a udder lack of words to describe the experience ( and I am not attempting to exaggerate my reaction). The women that participated in my workshop have few traits in common, they all have experienced trauma and abuse in their lives and currently go through an extreme financial hardship due to the economic limbo.... None of the participants have any past experience with creative self~expression in any form. I was completely stunned and blown away by the genuine and authentic embrace of the process by every single participant, in fact I felt as though I was being taught a lesson in unequivocal TRUST of what was unfolding on each woman's oversized posterboard through collaging, color pencil drawings, and acrylic painting. Perhaps the most touching time came at the end when all of us said in a circle and shared the experience.... every sentence describing the process was embellished with tears.... lots of tears.... I still continue to 'integrate' this beautiful evening and as I attempt to describe it with words I feel that the meaning is gone and what's left is just a 'reporting' that excludes the heart of the matter.... so, I let go, and trust that you can sense my last week's experience...

The following day, on Tuesday, I ended up facilitating an impromptu evening of Effort~Less Creativity for a group of friends... imagine six adults sitting on the floor and coloring mandalas, doodling, drawing and experimenting with simple delights of making marks with crayons, color pencils and markers.... simple and very joyful....

... Hanging Art In A Gallery & Preparing To Lead A Workshop...

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:40:00 -0600

The title of this post sums up my meandering activities and thought process throughout the last week.... First off, I had about ten paintings hung at the Skywriter Art & T-Shirt Gallery in downtown Glen Ellyn, IL a little over a week ago. This gallery is such a wonderful and very cool place to hang out... you can order any of the artworks' images to be printed on a t-shirt of your choice! While I was filling out some paper work the day of hanging my art, a journalist from a local newspaper stopped by and she soon fell in love with the gallery... long story short, there will be an article published next weekend featuring the gallery and perhaps some of my photos will be included...

Another opportunity that presented itself to me is being asked to lead an 'Intuitive Art Making Workshop' this upcoming Monday, December 28, from 4:30-7:30 in Aurora, IL to a group of women.... I very much look forward to this wonderful opportunity and to be of any assistance in embracing one's creative self-expression in daily life on regular basis.... that's my ultimate hope and outcome to be able to teach and encourage to follow this, often stifled and forgotten, voice of inner richness within regardless what life may throw our way. I sincerely believe that 'the stuff' of our lives is, what C.G. Jung called a prima materia - what we have to work with on our path of personal individuation. In other words, the events of our day-to-day life with its many facets are nothing more than a spiritual canvas on which we can paint, or make, our own mark.... this is how we integrate both joyous and painful experiences into a greater whole, that's how we 'mine' the depth of our Soul and how we are able to find the treasures by recognizing their true value. Perhaps our creative self-expression could be likened to a mirroring process that's in~ward~bound, instead of asking someone else about a purpose of a particular event or relationship in our lives, we could consciously dialog with this greater Intelligence, Wisdom, Mystery within us that holds all the answers, should we only bother to pose a question....

One bit of clarification is in order at this point.... when we engage this dialogue~ing process, which is completely non~linear and rather non~rational in its very essence, we enter a scary and unknown territory which the loud and threatening voice of the ever~bullying ego will try to divert us from pursuing at all cost. As the 'inner scenery' changes from a logical, matter-of-fact rationalizations, into symbolic imagery through the deepening of our process, be it through writing, painting, collaging, or any other expressive channel of choice, we can also observe a subtle nurturing that occurs as it gently begins to guide us onward. The funny think is that we have no words, no logical explanation to describe what All of it means.... but this peaceful, nurturing quality of the process gives us a hint of safety and sustenance that will lessen the anxiety and will help us to risk taking one more step..... and then one more....

It may take some time of practice on our part before we will begin to trust the process and value the insights that are being offered to us along the way while in the meanTime we enjoy the process of creation and await the mystery to reveal itself with even more abandon. I often feel like a Private Soul Investigator as I'm following, often deeply hidden, clues that my artwork patiently mirrors back to me. And there are times when it may take months or even years before I'm able to finally accept that which had been wanting to be revealed to me since the very beginning...

I find myself quiet puzzled as I'm even writing these words because how can we actually attempt to teach ~ show&tell ~ another human being the deep, enriching and enchanting musings that our inner Self awaits to bless us with the moment we get still and willing to listen? Perhaps that's where my deep seated trust, or faith takes over the doubting inner crowd of voices.... I try to stay in the present moment while remembering to only do my job, which is to guide one's attention inwards and perhaps share few 'snapshots' from my own inner voyages, just enough to spark one's curiosity ~ which, oftentimes, turns out to be a true 'creative courage starter'... all I can really do is to stand back in awe as I witness the mystery of creativity unfolding right in front of my very eyes....

On a side note that's related to doing a workshop, I'm in the process of planning an evening of art & history with a local business owner in which I'll be teaching some basics of hand coloring B&W photos depicting historic landmarks of Glen Ellyn, IL. Should you be interested in exploring this simple and fun technique I highly recommend a wonderful book that talks about coloring photographs by using color pencils, oil and acrylics paints in a simple and cretivity~sparking manner: Hand Coloring Black & White Photography: An Introduction and Step-by-Step Guide by Laurie Klein.

Our target audience for this event will be older children who will first have an opportunity to hear a local historian talk about few landmarks before we proceed to color B&W photos depicting the said sites.... I'll keep you posted once the dates are confirmed...

And finally, two snapshots of my newly developing painting....

... carving out letters from a wet High Solid Gel & acrlic paints mixture by revealing the underlying Absorbent Ground background layers...

Breaking A Heart.... On Wood

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:01:00 -0600

'Broken Heart'

Mixed Media on Wood 2x2

by Tatiana Kuzyk

Let me first begin by saying that I unintentionally re~published one of my older posts while trying to make a quick change to it.... turns out there's only two options that a Blogger offers in such cases 'Save as a Draft' or 'Publish the Post'... I think you're getting the picture. From now on, I'll try to leave all my old posts alone.

The second item I wanted to share is my last Friday visit to a C.G. Jung Institute in Evanston, IL for a movie viewing and discussion of a recently published for the very first time Jung's 'Red Book.' A very long story short, I had a chance to peruse through the Institute's copy of the book featuring original size mandala paintings by Jung.... amazing, stunning, and humbling ~ comes close in describing my first reactions to seeing Jung's magnus opus up close. I mention this event here, because I want to encourage you to visit the following link which opens a mandala-making site at the Rubin's Museum in NY where Jung's original Red Book is currently on display. I've been having so much fun making different mandalas and then printing them right off my screen.... here it is: http://explore-mandala.rma2.org/

Finally, I'd love to share photos depicting my latest painting's journey from the beginning ~ in other words, see how you can break a heart and enjoy the process, too....

I begun by spreading the usual two layers of acrylic gesso over a 2x2 plank of wood.

In the next step I applied one, generous coat of Golden Acrylics Absorbent Ground as I wanted to experiment with acrylic paints while creating a waterColors~like effect and transparency.

As you can see in the above photo the first layer of background has washy, somewhat translucent feel. In order to create an uneven pigment distribution I kept my brush thoroughly soaked with water while applying the following colors all Liquid Acrylics by Golden: Cobalt Turquoise, Turquoise (Phthalo), and Paynes Gray and later I added a thin layer of Green Gold and my All~Time favorite Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold.

Thanks to the initial application of an Absorben Ground the acrylic paint continued to exhibit waterColor characteristic which I wanted to put to a further experimentation. I used a wet Q-tip to create a pattern by remowing the paint layers all the way to the surface of the absorben ground. It is very easy and fun to remove acrylics this way as the paint gives into the water contact in the exactly same manner as the water colors do. I also made numerous splashes of water using an dropper for an added variation in texture.

I couldn't help myself but to call upon Polymer Medium (Gloss) mixed with Iridescent Bright Gold (Fine) and to made some irregular wav~y, criculR shapes around the previously created shapes on the right side of the painting.

... more splashes greet my eagerly~absorbent background... this time a Red India Ink which later followed by its Gold counterpart.

After manipulating the surface a bit and letting the ink move in different directions before becoming completely absorbed by the ground I added few drops of Golden Acrylics Flow Release to do none other than.... to re~lease the flow of the ink.

Next, with 'a little help from my friend' hair dryer the flow started to release while making interesting marks~patterns across the surface.

Before the ink splatters dried completely I spreaded additional paint colors throughout the surface while keeping the very right side of the painting alone for the time being. I used three colors of paint: Paynes Gray, Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold, and Turquois (Phthalo) and inter~mixed them with a palette knife for a bit more uniform effect.

As you can see the lightly wet ink patterns were included in this fun colors interPlay...

While the surface was gently resting and drying I used the Red India Ink and 'drew' a heart outline directly with the ink applicator as I wanted to let the colors to.... well, bleed a bit into the underlying, drying paint and find its final, irregular shape.

Unfortunately, both the above and below, photograph doesn't give the true color value of the Golden Acrylics High Solid Gel and paint mixture (Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold and a bit of Iridescent Bright Gold (Fine)). In this step I applied this thick, heavy mixture to cover all four circular shapes on the right side and....

.... also the interior of the heart shape at the center. Once finished, I placed my drying painting directly by the heating vent because.... well, I still have difficulties with following instructions and precautions at times. In this instance working with any Acrylic Gels or Mediums requires letting the freshly applied product to dry in the room temperature and any force~drying is strongly discouraged. However,..... if 'shooting' for some damage in the film/texture is your objective, then force~drying may be a way to go... with my painting I felt that force~drying will get the heart broken into many, many irregular pieces. FAST. And it did. I really like the final effect...

I used force~drying only with the heart shape and left the circles to dry at its natural pace. Then I set out to fill in the previously polymer~painted shapes with color while blending all elements into one cohesive whole with the circles. My first layer used a light application of Liquid Acrylics White Buff then followed by a Heavy Body Quinacridone Magent for a stron underlying color value. The subsequent paint layers included Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold and Transparent Red Iron Oxide.

For the heart I followed the same paint color application procedure as the one described above and below...

The final touches to the two main elements of my painting were aiming at developing further and accentuating textural variations. Hence, I used a small, plastic palette knife to apply numerous light deposits of the following Liquid Acrylics' colors: Golden Green, Van Dyke Brown Hue, and Iridescent Bright Gold (Fine).

Lastly I applied a coat of Golden Green paint to the entire background and I finished my painting with a thin layer of Golden Self-Leveling Gel in order to add a bit more lustre and seal off the absorbent layers before proceeding with a coat of Golden Acrylics Polymer Varnish w/UVLS (Satin).

De~Congesting.... Creatively, And Otherwise

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 17:18:00 -0600

Physically I've been congested since the last weekend and by now (Friday) my initial annoyance with not being able to feel the taste of my food, waking up with a desert-like mouth, and having my ears plugged from time to time, has transformed into a growing anger, to say the very least while still keeping this post 'G' rated at the same time.... Needless to say my inclination to writing has.... well..... somewhat.... diminished (still trying to stay on the side of 'niceness').

Looking at my congestion from a more metaphorical perspective, a creative self-expression in this instance, I've begun to 'connect few dots'... here and there. Most importantly I realized that though I've been creating on somewhat regular basis, part of my expression has become too 'automated' for me. I've over~committed myself on so many fronts, while still practicing conscious selectiveness among the opportunities that have presented themselves in my life. So, I decided to start from the beginning by remembering the conscious participation in my artmaking, staying present and open to the moment-to-moment creative inklings.... one of my 'anchors' to the present-moment-expression was music.... no words, or distracting TV imagery... once again I re~engaged the flow by listening to my all time 'centering' classic by Dan Gibson ~ 'Forest Piano.' I pulled out vintage magazines pages, circa 1925 which I bought this summer for $2. Of course I never work with the originals, so after making few color copies I spray them with a heavy coat of Golden Archival Varnish with UVLS in my garage and let them dry overnight. At the time of this writing, my collage background is about half~finished.... I look forward to an afternoon and evening of creative delights....

Embracing The Same~Ness: Circle~ing The Paper With WaterColors...

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:35:00 -0600

I decided to follow my inner yearnings and to dive, even deeper, into the waters of color (waterColor), and to continue to develop the same shapes/imagery by trying on new composition' arrangements ~ 'let's see what happens?' - attitude that would keep me more grounded in going deeper instead of, the usual, 'What could be a new technique that I haven't tried yet?' As expected, my 'boredom alert' kept on 'reminding' me, often not very gently, that the 'creative courage' is found in the mystery of new-ness, in taking more risks instead of less. And it finally hit me, I realized that my definition of 'creative courage' and its 'trail~blazing' qualities needs a dash of 'specific clarity' ingredient to work for me ~ so that I'm able to embrace the unknown not only by exploring its Depth, but also enchanting the wonders of its Breadth. Long story ~ very short, I kept on asking the same question, 'what if...?' ~ but this time I applied it to my exploration of variety through embracing the 'sameness' of elements... Unbeknown st to me, I may be in the process of creating a series of water color paintings ~ we'll see...

The funny thing is.... I've been priding myself of fearlessness and creative courage and initiative when it comes to experimenting with new techniques, mediums and strata, but perhaps that, so called, 'pride' ~ usually a blinding sense of hidden grandiosity, is the guilty suspect of my mistaken definition of 'creative courage'...??? And it is not about a 'right' or 'wrong' definition, as that is a very personal and intimate decision to embrace, but instead, it could be seen as a Creative Personal Coach, one that knows which of our atrophying creative muscle groups is in a desperate need of a workout... Perhaps, just like myself, you can relate to this metaphor ~ I have been staying clear of repetition in my art work to the point of wondering to myself if anyone has ever invented a vaccine for artistic boredom. Finally I've realized that there's an area in my creative self-expression that requires a heavy application of courage, of staying open to the unknown in the middle of utilizing the same elements of design to a new painting and it may just be a new opportunity for my growth. So, here I am.... waiting~out my insistence on 'new~ness' in my paintings, listening to the, often repeated rhetorical questions, 'do I REALLY feel like inventing the wheel...?' ~ I don't know, but adding more indignation to that sorry inner rhetoric by using, none other, than mostly round shapes of different lids, makes me laugh and adds a bit of determination in sticking up with my new found discipline ~ 'waiting out the usual b.s.' until a new painting is complete.

So, here's the scoop of the photos... begining with the above, I continued to work on the composition from the previous post ~ tracing numerous round lids and throwing in few square shapes just to aggravate the loud voices of my inner protest.... 'what 't heck, let's square the circles here and there and see if I can actually finish my painting while keeping my sanity at the same time....?'

I first painted the background by mixing and diluting few water color paint hues and immediately wiping of the still-wet paint with a Kleenex... herein lies the fun of preserving the translucency of a water color paint application, be it the background or the design elements' themselves, especially if layering is the outcome you're aiming at.

If you remember from my last post, I first used a very thin masking tape (1/8'' wide) as an initial element of my background, which in the end became a permanent part of the composition by adding an additional curvature and optical separation.

Someone commented on this photo by saying that it looks as though I photographed pieces of color glass stuck one on top of another... well, I didn't and I certainly did not plan on such effect, this painting felt like a natural 'extension' of my explorations of the main painting from my last post 'Autumn Flower' ~ exploring the geometry and shape relation to the exclusion of stamping and hand-drawn elements.

Next, I set out to go back and combine both, the geometric shapes and the 'organic' hand-drawn imagery from my first painting while ,with all my might, I struggled to expect the un~expected to come to life. As an alteration I employed two pieces of brown paper bag which I attached to the water color paper background with a double-sided sticky tape.

Next, I hand drew few flower~y shapes with a white charcoal pencil.

Above, I tried to 'tie together' both of the background materials and imagery by tracing round and square shapes with a black color pencil.

This is a finish background design right before a water color application.

After completing a heavy background wash with water colors, I used a Golden Acrylics Spray Varnish w/UVLS (Satin) to seal off the initial layers.

Once the varnish had set, I glued a piece of an old dictionary's entry with a Golden Acrylics Soft Gel (Semi Gloss) and upon drying, I proceeded to draw few petal shapes with a black water proof fine marker.

Sorry, I didn't photograph my meanderings in applying a multitude of acrylics colors to my painting.... the above is a finished work, 11x14 mixed media on paper, still awaiting its naming...

Soon, I gave into the temptation of 'variety' by settling on experimenting with a larger painting size, 18x24, yet still staying loyal to my circles... this time my cooking pots' lids were called to audition for a leading role in my emerging composition...

I first traced the shapes with a HB pencil and, later on, I went over them with a black color pencil in order to make sure that the outlines will survive the colorful 'flood' of watered~down pigment (H2OcolorS).

In my background development I used a mixture of different green values ranging from Green Gold to Sap Green and Phthalo Green in between, while sparsely leaving Cadmium Yellow and Zinc White deposits in the selected areas ~ making sure there's a distinct value range left behind...

.... you can see the dried background that also has experienced some heavy 'dabbing' off the wet paint with Kleenex

I begun my color exploration journey by first filling in the larger shapes with colors from the same family... bits of warm Yellow contrasting the underlying greens & light blues...

Next, I thought that after being such a 'disciplined disciple' of creative courage I deserve a treat.... how about a compliment.... why not complimenting myself with a complement(ary) color(s)... reds & pinks which will bring back the oranges and violets and then.... then... who knows who else will join the party...?

This is an up~to~the~moment shot of my painting... I can see some fine marker shape tracingS in its immediate future, followed by a generous coat of Golden Acrylics Spray Varnish w/UVLS (Satin)

What are your fun adventures and 'tough lessons' in embracing the 'variety of sameness'... be it through color, material, mediums, or the elements of design....?

....Mandalas, WaterColor & Ink Experiments....

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:06:00 -0600

'Autumn Flower'

11x14 Water Color, Acrylics & Ink on Paper

by Tatiana Kuzyk

How do I even try to capture a month's worth of my creative life...?
Perhaps letting the images do 'the talking' will be a time~efficient M.O. ~ though I've been working on couple of projects simultaneously in recent weeks, I refrained from posting all the photos from my camera's memory card out of my sincere concern for your, already extensive, scrolling...

I chose to post two completed projects and one in its early stages of development. The first nine photos depict, what turned out to be my Masters Creative Project, 'Ajna Mandala' 18x18 Mixed Media & Paper on Canvas.

I begun by first drawing the initial mandala design within a 16'' circle outline.

... before proceeding to the tedious task of filling~in the single elements of design, I outlined the entire composition with a black fine point marker 0.01...

Next I set out to fill in selected areas of the mandala with a black ink using fine point markers ~ 05, 08, 005. My overall aim was to bring out the negative spaces and thus add more depth to the black&white whole...

After first priming the surface of a 18x18 canvas, I proceeded with building a background color, which eventually became completely obliterated by the subsequent acrylic paint applications ~ see the final photo.

...unfortunately the final color development process for this piece was a very spontaneous activity lasting over an hour which I could just describe as being in 'the flow' ~ herein is the reason for the lack of accompanying photos as I did not take any. All I can say is that I used a numerous acrylic paint colors and while each layer was still drying I pressed a sheet of Kleenex against it while removing the majority of the color saturation at the same time. The final effect is a depth of, mostly transparent shades, which add a bit of ,distressed' feel to the over~all effect. For 'the final touches' I spreaded a thin layer of Golden Fluid Acrylics Iridescent Gold (Fine) letting the paint be deposited at the uneven texture~created crevices...

'Ajna Mandala' ~ finished painting was submitted to my school along with a lengthy description of the spiritual aspects of the creative process associated with bringing this mandala into 'the visible'...

Behold, after over a decade of 'staying clear' of waterColor paints I decided to add, yet additional, serving of a challenge into my life.... here's the short lowdown of my adventures with waterColor(s) & ink...

I strongly believe that a great and simple way of beginning a new project is by drawing a couple of random shapes either free-hand or using a stencil, or just by outlining an ordinary object of your choice. It's fun to combine and interpose shapes onto one another and once the overall composition feels finished, I like to go back with my eraser and develop some new, fresh shapes by erasing few lines here and there and observing a completely new design being born.

... I prepared a half a dozen of water color paint tubes, bought myself a small set of basic brushes and off I went with the flow ~ literally and metaphorically...

I begun the project by building a translucent background with a couple different washes while gently wiping the surface with a soft paper towel.

After outlining, once again, the main elements of the composition with a black ink marker, I preceded to fill them in with a variety of light washes.

... I'm yet to meet the person who, once exposed to the magic of rubber stamping, could resist this delicious temptation.... while on the subject, let me digress of one sentence here ~ I extended the temptation of trying a rubber stamping to my husband two weekends ago after purchasing an antiquated stamps alphabet kit and he got hooked to the point of stamping words on the walls ~ but getting back to our main story line, I stamped the right border of the painting with a vintage pattern and later on the hearts with a hand-written pattern using a black India ink...

But before I'll tell you about the above photo, let me re~wind the process a bit here... because the ink will be eventually smudged with any water contact, I used Golden Acrylics Varnish spray in between subsequent paint~mediums applications in order to preserve prior layers. After the varnish had set, I proceeded with spreading a thin coat of Golden Acrylics Soft Gel (Semi-Gloss) in order to, one: add a bit of irregular background texture, two: prepare the ground for the acrylic paint fun...

Next I drew a flower shape with a fine point archival marker 0.5...

Later on I added couple of light washes of acrylic colors to selected elements ~ the close-ups are seen in the above and below photos. For an overall image of this painting, titled 'Autumn Flower', please refer to the very top picture of this post.

So, let's embark on a new waterColor adventure by creating a fun, unexpected background with a little help from a masking tape and outline tracings...

In this new project I first used a 1/8'' wide masking tape to put in a few angular lines and awaited the mystery of shapes to come to life once the painting process begins. The masking tape itself in the above photo is almost invisible, but upon a closer look you can distinguish an ivory lines against the pure white watercolor paper background (the last photo shows the tape much better thanX to a contrast of black outlines).

... to be continued...

... each time I smell the un~mistaken aroma of water-diluted pigment I find myself being transported in time to my preschool and elementary school art experiments....I'd love to hear about your adventures with waterColor~ing

Late Night Collage~ing...

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:09:00 -0500

As the congestion is slowly moving South ~ right into my throat ~ I'm working on my new collage.... the excitement of the un~expected is keeping me awake, I want to find out what will happen next.... So far, the multitude of elements involved in the composition has finally put the 'censorship' to rest for a while ~ perhaps I can finish filling-in the color within the 'leaf~y' imagery before my hand will fall asleep, or the paint will dry up. This collage is a wonderful re~minder of the challenges involved in developing a visual texture - thanks to an abundance of acrylic mediums I can 'safely' navigate the waters of tactile texture, but the visual 'auditioning' is very much 'in business' when it comes to this project....

... the forgotten Waterproof India Ink (by Dick Blick) is asked to join the 'texture enhancing' party ~ let's begin with a good, old fashioned contour tracing and, once again,

single out each element of this ever~changing composition....

... and I mean 'no collage element left behind' here...

The above photo depicts my filling~in of green-gold hues over the leafy imagery (originally cut out of the hand-made paper). I applied a layer of Golden Heavy Body Acrylics first, followed by a very thin application of Golden Liquid Acrylics Green Gold and Iridescent Gold (Fine) to accentuate the diversity of ever~fluctuating paper-created texture...

... what happens to keep you awake in the middle of a creatively~stimulating night???

There's No Way But Within...

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:36:00 -0500

You can only know your gifts by expressing them...

The above is a quote from my meditation recording on which I've been working for the last two days, it's titled: "Re~Connecting With Your Creative Self." The original idea for this project begun as a required assignment for my curriculum ~ I have to submit a 10-minute long meditation recording and I thought, what better subject matter than creativity? In essence I'm taking a listener on a short journey to one's creative Source.... within, a place where no 'creative congestion' or a so called 'blockage' is ever possible.

The biggest challenge with this project has been the recording part and mixing a background music, I'm hoping to complete this assignment by tomorrow at the latest. If you're ever want to have some fun with playing with voice recording there's a wonderful and quiet simple in usability software, and best of all it's FREE, called Audacity, you can download it here.

On an artmaking note, I've been having a great creative fun with polymer resists in a new painting on a canvas board ~ I love how underlying texture-shapes of the polymer medium become alive with a subsequent layer of color. I also enjoy going a bit 'physical' with the piece by using a wire brush or a palette knife to bring out that 'weathered,' distressed feeling....

My recent photo~tutorial article featuring the creation of 'Leaf Notes' painting has been published on Creativity Portal.

ScanCafe, the award-winning photo scanning service: rated best by CNN Money, raves from Popular Photography and pro photographers.

Feeding The Creative Spirit In The Changing Season...

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:59:00 -0500

Last night we had the first frost this season and my body has been protesting against this radical temperature drop in recent days.... Though I covered my tomato bushes overnight, I think the frost has gotten to the leaves. So, as instructed by seasoned gardeners, I picked all the, not as yet mature, tomato fruits and placed them in an old wine box ~ they're headed for the warm, dark interior of my kitchen cabinet.... if everything goes according to the strong assurances of my fellow~gardeners, the tomatoes should begin to turn red in the upcoming weeks.

Following the food train of thought, I'm cooking one of my very favorite soups this evening ~ red beets borscht. I'm a soup person and I welcome a good cup of soup for any meal of the day. In fact, most Sunday mornings, my husband Greg and I, we go out to our favorite breakfast place, Egg Harbor Cafe, and I get to enjoy a very flavorful tomato bisque soup with a side salad....

I find cooking to be a very creatively stimulating channel of my self-expression... perhaps partly because I don't cook 'on schedule' ~ just like I don't make art according to some self-imposed timetable (this is the way it works for me). It is my personal rhythm of self-expression and creative nurturing ~ I love going to the store and being open to put into my shopping basket ingredients that I feel drawn to ~ I may enter the store with an intention of preparing a specific category of a meal ~ a salad, a soup, or a flavorful entree.... the rest is up to my being in the moment and filling my basket with ingredients (a very reminiscent process of artmaking for me). I like to read culinary recipes from time to time, just like reading armaking how-to books, but strictly for INSPIRATIONAL purposes ~ I don't adhere to a step-by-step journey of someone else.... I roughly mark my own 'the territory' I'd like to travel to, yet the mystery of a visual, tactile, or olfactory sight-seeing is the real treasure.

How do you feed your creative Spirit? Please share....

Read My New Article In Full...

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Wed, 7 Oct 2009 11:53:00 -0500

'Leaf Notes'

My article titled 'Are You Mistaking Arrogance For Humility?' has been published at Creativity Portal ~ follow this link to read the full feature.... or go to:

http://www.creativity-portal.com/howto/a/tatiana-kuzyk/mistaking-arrogance-humility.html

On a separate note, last night I finished my latest painting, as seen above, ~ 'Leaf Notes'

Fall~Inspired Mixed Media Painting...

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Tue, 6 Oct 2009 16:13:00 -0500

'Leaf Notes' (2'x 2' wood panel)

...a new painting is born...

I remember being in preschool that each fall season we went on a field trip called 'Looking For Fall' ~ most of my late childhood I was perplexed with a notion of being able to actually, physically, tangibly 'finding' Fall... Today, as an artist I love the idea and I can easily say that Fall is here, especially in the Midwest. Come late summer, I slightly envy anyone who's blessed with living in the southern hemisphere....

Two weekends ago I walked the paths of the Morton Arboretum while attempting to find Fall yet again.... most of all, I've found abundance of inspiration in the form of 'live paintings' by the hand of Nature itself...

... I was blessed with an abundance of leaves that I'd brought home with an intention of somehow incorporating them into one of my projects....

I placed all the leaves I'd collected in between the pages of a phone book ~ letting them dry and preserve their original shapes... a week later I was ready to listen to the still voice of In~Spiration for an idea which ended up coming in an e-mail from an editor of Creativity Portal ...

Sometime ago I applied a thick of gesso over an unfinished painting which I'd experimented with over the summer while trying to honor my creativity in the middle of my 'hosting marathon'.... Long story short, after the gesso dried, there was some visible Polymer Medium clear markings coming through to the surface which I decided to embrace as I'd anticipated some wonderful texture developing soon... After placing majority of my dried leaves on the surface I begun to play with an arrangement.

My original inclination for the composition' rhythm was a mandala~shape arrangement, which, eventually, ended up finding its own momentum...

... finally a finished design emerged...

I spreaded the following Golden Acrylics' paint colors on my palette: Phthalo Green ( Yellow Shade), Sap Green Hue, Turquois (Phthalo), Green Gold, Cobalt Green, and Van Dyke Brown Hue.

I used a #10 Synthetic Flat acrylics brush to outline the leafy shapes of my composition by applying a thick layer of numerous colors simultaneously...

The tracing itself is a veeery messy endeavor... proceed with much paper towel at hand! I found that working in a 'one-leaf-at-a-time' manner makes the process more manageable....

The above is a complete 'negative space' traced arrangement of my leaves' collection...

Next, I prepared a variety of a fall~palette colors to be used for 'filling~in' the leaves' negative spaces... here's the list of Golden Acrylics 'credits' due: Quinacridone Crimson, Indian Yellow Hue, Green Gold, Iridescent Bright Gold (Fine), Transparent Red Iron Oxide, Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide, Quinacridone/Nickel Azo Gold, and Quinacridone Burnt Orange....

....And finally, I set out to filling in the negative leaves' spaces by applying a quiet heavy mixture of the above paints' colors while making sure that there's very little 'blending~in'. I was aiming at preserving the subtle uniformity of each individual color used.

While the final paint application was still somewhat wet, I used my palette knife to scrape off the paint over the underlying Polymer Medium background' shapes...

Though my camera didn't catch it, I applied a very thin layer of Golden Liquid Acrylics Titan Buff with a 'scraping~off' gesture using a palette knife's edge, over the previously exposed Polymer Medium texture.... Once again, I was trying to reminisce the old, worned~out, rogue climate of the season...

I'd returned to a Golden Liquid Acrylics Carbon Black, Payness Gray, Turquois (Phathalo), and a Bright Iridescent Gold (Fine) mixture that I thinly distributed over a surface of an over-sized rubber stamp depicting a handwritten text.... refer back to the photo in the beginning of this post to see the 'note~stamping' in progressssss....

On a side note, my article titled 'Are You Mistaking Arrogance For Humility?' ~ another addition to the series 'Artist's Musings On Creative Process,' has been published. Read it in full by clicking the following link: Creativity Portal

ScanCafe, the award-winning photo scanning service: rated best by CNN Money, raves from Popular Photography and pro photographers.

New Article... Read An Excerpt Before It's Published!

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Fri, 2 Oct 2009 11:12:00 -0500

I finished working on an article last night titled 'Are You Mistaking Arrogance For Humility?' ~ as soon as it'll be published on Creativity Portal I'll place a link in sidebar. But for now let me share an excerpt below.....be the first one to see it!

Artist’s Musings On Creative Process...

Are You Mistaking Arrogance For Humility?

From a personal experience I can tell you that whenever I’m feeling creatively congested, AKA ‘blocked,’ I’ve had, somewhere along the way, applied a mental-emotional break to the creative flow that’s awaiting its expression. I believe that creativity is NOT of our own making and our free will does not give us a right to determine WHAT will come through us into this visible, 3-Dimensional reality as defined by our five senses. Our control of the process (read ‘interference’) is limited to stalling and stopping our creative expression, or making the so called ‘aesthetic adjustments’ that we hope will render our work ‘acceptable’ by adhering to some illusory standards.

Oftentimes the thwarting of our creative self-expression begins when the process moves into the unfamiliar territory. Perhaps we feel attracted to experiment with a new technique, a new genre, or a new color palette and decide to give it a try. Our uncertainty deepens as we hesitantly begin to explore the unknown creative vistas. Soon two old and familiar companions join us on our journey – doubt and criticism. In order to make their presence tolerable we try to mitigate (read ‘control’) the path of our creative journey. We start running towards the ever-elusive sense of safety by changing the course and heading back for the familiar grounds, or out of panic and desperation, we stop ourselves dead in our creative tracks altogether.

American Heritage Dictionary defines the word ‘humility’ as 'being free from pride and arrogance.' Yet way too often we put the proverbial horse before the cart by mis~perceiving arrogance for humility, particularly in our creative life. The popular message, often clothed in the garments of authority, loudly and unanimously declares the extent of our creative ability, AKA 'talent.' And herein lays the hidden arrogance. ....

.... to be continued....

This morning I've been reading A Course In Miracles and I came across a passage that's very relevant to the subject matter of my article (once you can read it in its entirety).

"The result of genuine devotion is inspiration, a word which properly understood is the opposite of fatigue. To be fatigued is to be de-spirited, but to be inspired is to be in spirit." ACIM T4.1.5-6

In my article I talk about commiting oneself to one's creative self-expression as a Sacred Practice. I use the word 'sacred' in context of devotion and dedication to the Process versus the outcome, or the final product. I sincerely believe that not only we can free ourselves permanently from the so called creative blocks by re~gaining a true perspective on what this beautiful gift of creativity really is that each one of us is so abundantly blessed with and what our role is in its expression. Additionally, we can endlessly deepen and fearlessly explore ever more depth of this creative well within... by expressing our creative gifts and sharing them with one another we begin to remember who we authentically are..... perhaps because our creative journey is a channel to bring the beauty from inside ~ out into the world. What a relief that is in contrast to the endless search for our own identities in the world outside first and trying to bring it inward second..... finally we can let go of this emptiness that is associated with searching for our beautiful Selves in the external.....now we can see it where it always has been and the wonder and beauty of our expression is a timeless witness to who we are in Truth....

Send Page To a Friend

ScanCafe, the award-winning photo scanning service: rated best by CNN Money, raves from Popular Photography and pro photographers.

An Evening Of Art~Making

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:58:00 -0500

Before I get to the heart of my post, let me express my annoyance with this blogger platform that makes me realize ever more depth to my patience.... I just published this post completely unintentionally, without any text in the body, by hitting the enter key while typing the title.... perhaps one day soon, someone will make my blogging life easier by having this software ask for a CONFIRMATION, before publishing...

Now let's talk artmaking and creativity.... I spent close to five hours last evening on re~turning to my three projects...you can see the beginning of the two paintings by clicking the below link:
http://creativesustenance.blogspot.com/2009/09/negative-is-fun.html

The last painting I worked on seemed to be asking for some stamp~ing all over the hearts...

I mixed a bit of Golden Liquid Acrylics Carbon Black and VanDyke and off I went spreading the mixture over a large text stamp. Next I depressed against the heart shapes letting the text flow in and out of the hearts....

I chose Golden Liquid Acrylics Transparent Yellow Oxide, bits of Gold Green, Turquois (Phathalo), and my ever favorite Quinacridone Nickel Azo (Gold) to fill the color into my hearts.... I rubbed of paint at random with a damp paper towel ~ aiming for much variety in color distribution and saturation...

Here's a close~up, as well as the very top photo of this post. You can notice the variations in texture... again I felt that the hearts and the text itself required a bit of aging that would accentuate the richness of the composition...

Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the step in which I spreaded a very thin, somewhat watered down, layer of Golden Liquid Acrylics Titan Buff with my palette knife's edges. I wanted to bring up to the surface the uneven background first created with a coarse application of gesso by using a palette knife.

Next I applied two generous coats of Golden Acrylics Heavy Gel (Gloss) ~ again, aiming for much differentiation in texture....

Almost a finished painting (still awaiting a coat of varnish ~ I think Satin sheen is called for). The colors are much darker in the photograph than in reality.... The first photo of this post is very close to the true colors of my paining. By the way the title is ~ 'Love Letter'

The evening begun with the continuation of developing the painting from last week, which actually started about three posts ago with a creation of tissue paper based background.... I got lost in the process and, again, forgot to put my camera to use throughout the process.

I kept on adding more texture to the piece by using rich, deep shades of paints whose names started with 'Quinacridone' and/or ended with 'Oxide'..... I filled the leaves in with greens, reds, magenta, and golds ~ over and over until there was much depth to the underlying layers.... Next, I went over with my second favorite when it comes to aging~texturizing, Titan Buff around the outlines of the shapes and over the letters. I rubbed a damp paper towel over a, still wet, paint..... what to heck, let's add some more distress to it and see what happens.... I also added a heart in the bottom of the piece, but decided to preserve the previous Polymer Medium created shapes in the fore~ground of the heart by rubbing the the white paint used on the heart off the polymer areas.... Here's a good example of a 'picture being worth a thousand words' when it comes to sharing a creative process.....

I applied a very generous layer of Golden Acrylics Heavy Gel (Gloss) to the dried surface....

This is a finished painting ~ 'Fall' ~ mixed media on canvas board...

Send Page To a Friend

Is There An Art To Arranging a Potpourri?

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:56:00 -0500

.... I am more and more inclined to say 'Yes' ~ there's a definite act of self-expression involved in making sure your potpourri looks 'just right' in your container of choice.... It seems to me that we buy a 'ready~to~use' bag of potpourri pieces that vary, from season to season, in terms of all actual elements of 4-D design elements ( your olfactory sense being the 4th D-imension) and we are left to either improvise or try to re~create the 'perfection' of a pre~packaged product in order to fully enjoy all of the 'visually promised' benefits. I don't know about you, but personally I'm always waaaay behind the season, and once I finally get to arrange my decorations around the house, I have very little energy left to be spent on 'playing' with an endless number of potpourri pieces.... today was no exception.

The above photo depicts a finale of a long and arduous 'struggle' between an XLarge container size (18'' in diameter decorative plate), a 2lbs. bag of potpourri, and my seriously limited attention span. But finally I settled on, what I'd call, 'an acceptable' arrangement... by placing a candle container in the center...

Since I find it extremely difficult to follow any explicit directions, I decided to pull out a box of moss-covered stones and en~liven my family room potpourri masterpiece.... my steady allegiance to the summer's abundance of the daylight will see me through the 'violets' and 'blues' of winter... in my latitude tanning beds and white candles are destined to keep me from over~listening to U2, Foo Fighters, and Snow Patrol. I hope.
Or should I mis~quote my friend and pose a rhetorical question~ why isn't Chicago located in the Caribbean?

Enough of whining!
I genuinely savor the moist, dewy air of late September. Each day the colors of vegetation seem to transform overnight.... as though re~discovering anew more depth and richness within...

What are your thoughts on fall? And are your frustrated or stimulated with a creative influx when a new bag of potpourri 'call your name'???

Send Page To a Friend

Negative Is Fun!

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:09:00 -0500

... negative can be very Fun and a spontaneous channel of expression when it comes to creating a negative space pattern. I continue to derive more and more inspiration from a book I wrote about couple of posts ago ~ 'Celebrate Your Creative Self' by Mary Todd Beam. One of the chapters describes fun and easy techniques of using a negative space as a starting point for a new composition, and later on, becomes transformed into a surprising and contrasting element of the Big Whole.... anyways.... I chose heart shapes which I had first cut out from an old Dick Blick shopping bag (yes, there's an overabundance of those at my house and even more receipts awaiting a tax season....)

After few trials with various hearts' arrangements I settled on the above one...

While holding each separate heart in place, I begun to trace its shape and paint the background at the same time using a mixture of these three hot colors: Golden Heavy Body Acrylics Quinacridone Magenta, Golden Liquid Acrylics Permanent Violet Dark, and heavy body Dick Blick Acrylics Light Portrait Pink... I made sure that blending was kept to minimum in between this fun three~some, that way each color could accentuate the heart shapes more dramatically.

Once the entire surface of a 9''x11'' canvas board was painted I lifted all the hearts off the surface using tweezers... I will begin to work on this piece tomorrow and post my photo~art adventures accordingly....

As a I alluded to in my last post, I attended an Intuitive Painting Workshop yesterday.... I attended it first back in June 2008 and once I got an invitation to another workshop I felt that the timing was perfect. I've been trying to find back my own rhythm in the mysteries of creative self~expression after almost three months of 'others~oriented' life and 'struggle' is the closest that begins to describe my inner un-settlement.... So, I signed up for the workshop on the spot and all I can say is, I feel that I have re~discovered my own flow again. Throughout the workshop I was reminded of the the importance of Process over the Product and the teacher kept on posing numerous 'What ifs...?' questions as all the participants delved deeper and deeper into the mysteries of creation.... What if it was perfectly O.K. for me to use the colors I authentically wanted to? What would I paint if I didn't care about the final result? etc. ~ the questions kept on challenging the inner critic until what was finally left after over two hours of painting was my hand FOLLOWING the brush and a tempera color choosing me.... Like I've said, it is a purely experimental process that aims at suspending the critical, abusive voice of the inner critic long enough to let whatever wants to be expressed come forth without the stalling of the inner censorship. That entire workshop was based on the creative process first developed by Michelle Cassou and best described in her book 'Point Zero: Creativity Without Limits'. I just ordered my own copy to explore the process even deeper. Below is a photo of my painting which begun and culminated with nothing more than a repetition of couple different brush strokes repeated over two and a half hour period using about six tempera paint colors.

...A new painting is born...

In this painting experiment based on the book 'Celebrate Your Creative Self' I employed a 9''x12'' canvas borad agian... First I attached horizontal layers of a tissue paper to the surface using acrylic gesso.

I dipped my 2'' brush half~and~half style in variety of Golden Liquid Acrylics and dragged them 'with the grain' of previously dired vertical tissue paper ~ gesso attached pattern. I used at least a half a dozne different paint colors, way too many to list.... but these three played a predominant role in the creation of this composition's background: Golden Liquid Acrylics Quinacridone/ Nickel Azo Gold (of course!), Turquois (Phathalo), and Quinacridone Burnt Orange... I strongly encourage you to experiment with your very own choices ~ the ones that your heart calls out to be expressed at the moment. Trust it. Follow it. And admire what's taking place right in front of your eyes!

Befere letting the paint to dry completely, I used a wet brush to blend the colors' transitions as evently as I could ~ given a sensitive tissue paper surface.

I renewed my friendship with my stamps here.... I applied a thin coat of Golden Heavy Body Acrylics Quinacridone Magenta and Golden Liquid Acrylics Permanent Violet Dark to the surface of a large stamp and.....

... I impressed it against the uneven texture of the surface with all my might.

Next I returened my attention to the Polymer Medium (Gloss) and Golden Liquid Acrylics Iridescent Bright Gold (Fine) mixture and 'drew' some irregular shapes over the stamped area...

As the Polymer Medium/Paint mixture was drying, I kept asking myslef a question ~ what's next that this painting wants? Soon I realized that more stamping is called upon..... this time a 'text pattern' is impressed on the surface using a Golden Liquid Acrylics Carbon Black.

As I conitnued to ask myself the questions about the progression of this painting, I stumbled upon another image tansfer technique that was called upon ~ stenciling. So, I pulled out my 2'' stencils and dry~brushed the shapes with Golden Liquid Acrylics Paynes Gray.

The above is a dried version of the painting's journey....

XLarge Fun With Polymer Resist....

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:01:00 -0500

Yesterday I decided to follow my intuition and focus my creative energy on one painting only.... well, I almost did. The above photograph shows 'up~until~now' image. As a strata I used the somewhat chewed up 2x2 plywood board that my dog devoured back in May. I thought that it may convey a very believable look of an old, distressed painting.... so far I really like how the 'antiquated' texture progresses, though I'm not anticipating any additional chewing ~ my creative skills must suffice to deliver a quality aging, at this point only paint, brushes, wire brushes, and acrylic mediums are allowed in the vicinity of the painting. So, let me tell you briefly how this painting was born.....

I used my new toy, a large palette knife, I treated myself to the other day as I anticipated a new project that would outgrow small, plastic tools. I applied a very heavy layer of acrylic gesso over few sheets of white tissue paper first attached to the surface. As I worked gesso in between uneven layers of tissue paper I aimed at radical changes in texture.

Next I used a small plastic bottle with a pointed-end cap and I filled it 3/4 full with Golden Polymer Medium (Gloss). Then I added a generous amount of Golden Liquid Acrylics Iridescent Bright Gold (Fine) and gave the bottle a good shakin' ~ making sure that the mixture achieves a uniform color.

.... let the doodeling begin! I used the tip of my bottle as my drawing tool and enjoyed every moment of it!

.....an almost finished pattern~drawing. It reminded me of table cloth or fabric pattern when I took a step back when I covered the entire surface.

Let's dye the fabric now! As the moisture~hungry gesso was pulling in a very watered-down (not quiet a wash) layer of Golden Liquid Acrylics Turquois (Phthalo) mixed with a bit of Black Gesso, it felt as though I was painting a piece of fabric, literally...

I used a sheet of paper towel to remove moisture-paint from the painting to create a weathered, distressed, uneven color distribution throughout.

Can you create an authentically looking 'aging effect' without help from Golden Heavy Body Quinacridone/ Nickel Azo Gold??? Perhaps. But you can make a visual magic and enjoy the process by applying even a bit of this heavenly aging aid..... and glazing with Quinacridone, even a bright white piece of paper, will make you a life-long believer~worshiper! The best part of using Quinacridone is, that it's difficult to over~use it because it blesses any surface with a wonderful transparency and bestows brightness and depth to any underlying tones it is applied over.....

.... oh, yes! No believable, credible altered art work should be deprived of a wire brush deliberately removing, often more than one layer of paint~medium, at a time. For an extra fun, using a wire brush adds even more 'physical~ness' to the act of creation....

... a bird's eye view of the completed, thus far, two layers of the underpainting.... feel free to zoom-in, but that's the most detailed photo I have.

I painted all hearts with Golden Liquid Acrylics Permanent Violet Dark and Quinacridone Magenta and I was pleasantly surprised how much depth this cool~warm color mixture brought up....

I got such a great time with this wonderful coloring action going that I decided to accent every element of my painting. And so the flowers were adorned with a mixture of Cobalt Turquois and Turquois (Phthalo) and spiral shapes received a gentle treatment from Liquid Sap Green...

I filled the spaces in between grouped shapes with colors used at other places in the painting.... I wanted to see a correlation and cohesion of the 'big whole' while the variation was also meant to preserve a distressed character....

As of right now, this painting will shortly meet with a thin layer of Self Leveling Gel, that way the current state of design will be locked in before the rest of mixed media adventure will unfold....

When working on this painting yesterday and today, I was able to focus my attention more fully on the process at hand instead of thinking three steps ahead to two other projects. Staying with one brush stroke, one color choice at a time is the most rewarding manner of creation for me.... and incidentally that leads me to new discoveries, new heights and depths of this mystery called creativity. And to cultivate the process itself I signed up myself for an Intuitive Painting workshop for tomorrow morning. I look very much forward to it as I've participated in it over a year ago and it truly is beyond words to even try to describe it.... all I can say is that for me personally, those three hours dislodged a pretty heavy load of so called creative blockage and my painting from that remarkable workshop is probably the most cherished creative expression I've been blessed with so far in my life....

On a side note, Big Thank YOU! to everyone who came to my Caribou showing on Monday ~ it was a very special night for me.... Though I brought my camera with me, I didn't realize until everyone left that I'd intended to take pictures....

I've been told by the staff at the coffee place that everyone wants to touch my paintings and collages ~ what can I say, I do it all the time myself, it's not a museum ~ go for it and touch it to your heart's delight!

Having Fun Doodle-ing With Polymer Medium...

noreply@blogger.com (Tatiana Kuzyk) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:35:00 -0500

New painting, as of yet, untitled.... I can see a generous coat of Golden Self-Leveling Gel in its future for a final touch, before applying a gloss varnish....

Last night I put in few finishing color layers onto one of the pieces I've been working on recently... besides adorining my painting with Golden Liquid Acrylics Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold ( a serious 'must-have' paint color that will enable you to perform color~texture magic in a brush-stroke-minute while leaving you astounded with a transformation of 'pretty-looking' painting into a WOW-effect exhuding masterpiece!)... I also relied on a much needed aid from Golden Heavy Body Acrylics Green Gold glaze and both, Interefence Violet and Green layers. Feel free to take my word for a visible distiction betweeen color and depth-suggesting texture of the painting, as the light~camera combination refuses to present a true value of the color pallette... above is the image I'd describe by quoting the title of one of my most favorite movies... As Good As It Gets....

Moving along to the next project being continued from a previous post or two ~ this one had a plastic wrap applied to the surface first, then I drew same shapes with a charcoal pencil. Next I cut out the wrap from the right side and applied fiber paste layer followed by painting leafy shape. Over the weekend I cut out the remaining wrap, piece by piece, tracing the elements of design once again.

~ in the next step I mixed Polymer Medium (Gloss) with Golden Liquid Acrylics Sap Green in a plastic bottle

~ I set out to paint the outlines of shapes with a heavy layer of polymer-paint mixture for more definition~

~ having tons of fun with 'painting-drawing' using paint-polymer mixture, I pulled out one of unfinished experiments from couple of months ago, and used the remaining product to doodle few fun shapes over the surface....

P.S.

This morning I hung 7 paintings at Caribou and shortly I'll be off to meet with whoever will enjoy a good cup of coffee sprinkled with creative sharing of ideas.....