Meandering Artist

Maybe you have figured out from my blogs, just how much my thoughts meander.  It is not the only thing that meanders, my life as an artist is also meandering.  I am a gourd artist, first and foremost.  I love being in the gourd studio, working, not always on gourds.  I just happened to pick up a magazine last week, Cloth, Paper, Scissors.  It is one of those magazines that sometimes calls my name, after all, I do have lots of cloth, I used to sew.  I horde scraps of paper so small, I wonder if a mouse is in the drawer with my papers.  And no artist worth his salt doesn't have scissors, I have scissors that are "fabric only", little ones for cutting threads, Teflon scissors that sticky stuff isn't suppose to stick to (it still sticks), I have scissors that are to cut leather, paper, and a pair that cuts the dogs hair.  I also have rotary cutters and a big paper cutter and little circle cutters.  Excuse me, I am meandering again...........

The magazine has wonderful, amazing and clever ideas to tempt my imagination!  The one that jumped out at me sounded easy and creative enough.  I only need a few more supplies!  None of the supplies require were scissors of course, so I must look for a few other things.  The first is old National Geographic magazines.  I didn't have any, but my chiropractor was happy to share his stash.  Then I needed a product to dissolve the ink on the pages of the magazine.  Citra Solv* concentrate can be found at health food stores.  It has a very orange smell and after the first day of painting pages I didn't think I'll ever get rid of that smell in my nostrils.  When the pages dried then it came time to play with more Citra Solv* to move the ink around on the page and create something that came from a hidden design on an ink smeared page from the National Geographic!  I also needed a few colored pens to enhance my designs.  It turned out to be great fun and I managed to wile away hours and hours this week in the gourd studio. 

The results are interesting, most of them are keepers.  Richard is my judge, if he looks at the picture I hold up and has a puzzled look on his face, I know that I must keep pushing ink around so he can eventually see what I see.  It has been a good way to spend a cold week in February.  Plus, I have a new skill, some new supplies and some new artwork.  Gotta love that!