Sometimes the best thing is to say good bye

It’s the new year – I’m trying to get control of my art space while also trying to find time to make more art.  Clearing out a physical space – and cleaning up the mental space as well.  Examining all the work that I have done and in my mind going through all the work that I have stored up there yet to do.  I’m having a hard time going forward, though, because some of my older work is looking at me from the shelves. Some of the pieces I love – but love enough to let go, and they now reside over in my Etsy space.

Others don’t talk to me as much.  I like their sentiments maybe, but I don’t like the executed product.  Or, I like the executed product, but the sentiment doesn’t seem to work as much.  One of those is my girl in green – I really like the layers behind her, I like the sentiment, but I’ve never liked the final face – again, I can’t seem to get passed Jay Leno jaws in some of my smaller pieces!

I’ve never thought about re working pieces before – they all seemed too precious when they were done that I wasn’t brave enough to go back in to make changes.  And, painting faces at this scale can be a bit exhausting so I’ve not had the energy or the bravery to go back and try again since I’ve been less than confident in my ability!  But – this is a new year, and I have been practicing more.  And I need to be really proud of the pieces that I send out in to the universe and to the Etsy- verse.

So to start, I’m going to try to rework the face in this piece.  I’m not sure how it will go – it’s a bit scary, but I’m also brave enough that, if it doesn’t work, I’m ready to cover over the piece completely and start over again.  That’s a hard change for me to make since when I collage, I do so very deliberately with the pieces underneath having some connection to what gets drawn on top.  But I’m feeling like I’m in control – that I manage the piece, it doesn’t manage me.  I remember this great quote from Lorraine Torrence in one of the classes I took from her – “You own your fabric, your fabric doesn’t own you” which meant that it was okay to cut into a precious piece of fabric – there is always more somewhere. So this weekend, with a little more time on my hands, I will start to “own” my work.  I’ll let you know how it goes!!!

 

 

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