... it will arrive via Priority Mail in Boston, sometime this week.
Last year, I was invited, along with a number of other calligraphers to contribute art for a book project entitled "The Songs of Cheryl Wheeler." Cheryl Wheeler is a delightful singer/songwriter in Massachusetts. The artists were to pick a song and do an art piece in response to that song. I didn't have a moment's hesitation about doing this for my friends or which song I would choose.
While I am an Oregonian now - with an amazing ability to order a wide variety of coffee drinks in an infinite number of combinations, and the ability to point to a volcano even if it's cloudy and the mountains aren't "out" - I was first a New Englander, a daughter of Massachusetts. I had to have "When Fall Comes to New England."
I love autumn, it makes me positively giddy. I'm so glad Cheryl's lyrics are so visual so I don't have to torture you with my attempts to describe what a thrill the season is.
This mixed media piece is done on a 9x12" canvas. The finished book is going to be 8.5x11" so I wanted to stay close to those proportions. I lettered a million different ways trying to get all the words and keep visual art elements. I had to narrow it down, a hard task when all the words mean so much to me. "All the words" are going to have to be on the next project that's brewing in my head.
Here's what happened... using many of the techniques I learned from Jacqueline Sullivan, I started with a 9x12" canvas. I painted a background with acrylic paints. I used clear tar gel on the left to build up texture. Just to get in a touch of Oregon, I lettered the title on copper slug tape and ran it down the right side. I put painted tissue over the upper right and lower left corners. I then broke out the wonderous, fabulous molding paste and used that for the falling leaves and the acorns & oak leaves and painted over that.
I lettered the lyrics on off-white paper with red acrylic ink, then stained the color with an acrylic wash. I used matte medium to attach the papers to mat board, then covered the edges of the 3 small pieces and the right edge of the canvas with more painted tissue. I glued the fringe trim to the back of the little pieces, then decided the little pieces needed leaves of molding paste. Word to the wise, don't do that last, do that before the fringe goes on, otherwise you may have to watch a Law & Order episode while picking the dried molding paste out of the fringe. I'm just sayin'. I stuck the three pieces down with strips of foam tape to give it some dimension.
Now I'm going to carefully pack it up and get it ready to head to Massachusetts tomorrow. Goodbye, my little piece, I'll see you next summer in Boston at ODYSSEY, the 30th Annual Gathering of Lettering Artists. Maybe I'll even have the completed sister project that's brewing in my head...
