Art of the Ancient

Has an interesting sort of mystery to it, doesn't it?

I think it encapsulates the inspiration and literal meaning to my work.   I'm pretty sure that will be the title of my piece when finished.  Pretty sure.   

Like,  63%?

Okay, it will probably change, like, a million more times.

Let's call it a working title for now until the thing is actually finished.

As mentioned before, the idea for this came in the form of a dream.  I came down to my studio, cleared my desk and worked out the idea a little in my sketch book.  The idea was this:

It would be really interesting to create a 3D piece on a larger scale [than I'm used to working] showing the changes in color using a medium I've used countless times in the past.  Just in a different way.

Scratch that.  

COMPLETELY different way.

Using watercolors.

I have zero skill when it comes to watercolors.  

So this idea will push me completely out of my comfort zone in all aspects, presenting the ultimate challenge.  

My mind is asking:

"Um, babe...can you pull this off? I mean, can you actually do this successfully and not feel like you wasted an exorbitant amount of time on absolutely nothing? ...Just asking..."

I know.  Self-doubt is a total bitch, and yes I DO have Internal conversations with myself like this.

I like to keep it real.

And of course I answer myself and declare: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

Because if I didn't follow my own advice and take the leap with the knowledge that, even if this becomes a failed experiment, I will come out of this with a few new pieces of knowledge that I didn't have before - I would be a total hypocrite.  And that would be super lame.

 

So, to recap - a 3D color theory work of art...more or less.

Here is my artist road map (or rough sketch) of my idea:

By now, I'm sure you're probably looking at this and scratching your head, becoming more curiously confused but I accounted for this!  By that I mean that I just took more photos of my work in progress.

Let me start continue by stating that the medium I'm using for this project is paper.  The  circles represent the paper in the sketch above and the color spectrum I've filled in will be worked into the paper and assembled roughly as represented.  Let me add that the paper circles are actually rolled strips of paper for me to achieve the 3 dimensional look I am going for.

Due to the fact that this is being worked into a larger scale and I'm dealing with super thin strips of paper, recycled paper was an appealing idea.  As I was thinking about how and where I could look for masses of "scrap paper", my gaze swept across an old text book sitting in the corner of my studio.

Light bulb.

What old college textbook would that be you ask?  

Well none other than this one, of course:

  

What better use for an old Art History text (that weighs 900 lbs mind you) to be recycled into modern art?  And Color Theory related at that!  It is choc full of pages for me to use for this.  

I may or may not have danced a little jig of excitement upon rediscovering this treasure...  

Hence the working title for this piece.  

Anyway, Here are some photographs of my work in progress:

The above is where I am currently in the project.  I plan to make the strip as long as my studio table so I have a little bit more blue left to fill in.  Then, I will be working left and right into the varying shades of the color spectrum to represent the transitions from one to the next (as noted in my sketch).  

Yes.  This will be a very long process, but it is something I've never tried to do before.  The challenge of it is exciting and I hope the end result will be better than I imagined it to be.  

I will update you on this particular project when I can!

Wish me luck! :]

XO

ANF