Last night a large contingent of artists waged LIVE ART battles in front of a generous and enthusiastic audience!  I found the three energizing concepts a tad challenging, but then again, I enjoy the complete surprise of these each and every week.  One topic was definitely going to be helpful to me…’transparent layers as achieved with tissue paper’.  Wowsers!  This was the first night I thought to pack a bit of tissue in my back pack!  So…PERFECT!

One of the other topics…red knife (hmmm). I decided to interpret the red knife as a person’s bloodline…where culture and family take us.  This was going to work well with the concept of layering and finally, I incorporated all sizes of bike wheels, in order to somehow capture the third topic, “midnight bike riders”.  I thought of the wheel as representing travel, growth, mobility and change…going places.

Small details included the incorporation of a small bit of collage that exemplified a gorilla in a house…a gang of bikers, riding…and a discarded poster of a beautiful woman that I had picked up, water damaged, at a Women In Need shop.  I used the image of the heart…something that artists and audience members wear as a FOIP release each evening at the Gorilla House.  In my piece, I included three of these hearts within the composition.  Finally, I included the moon and a pocket watch, both capturing a sense of time passing.  The time, in Roman numerals, reads midnight.

I went about using red to create concentric and parallel lines over the contours of the woman’s body…beginning with the water mark that has its origin in the bottom third.  I wanted to surround her in her ‘bloodline’.  To create a dynamic, I then used my pthalo blue in various tints and shades to create the circular wheel structures.  It is always a fun thing to explore balance and composition while incorporating paint and collage.

Thanks to Janice Beaton Fine Cheese for providing an assortment of treats again.  That is a welcome treat after two hours of focused painting!

This week, my piece was purchased at auction, by Vilimiria.  Thank you!  Photo Credit goes to friend-artist and blogger, Belinda Fireman.  I’m grateful to have met you!

Other folks…I really treasure each of you for the fun we are having, creating together!  I regret that I didn’t capture a photo of each and every piece…it was so fantastic.

Last week, we enjoyed the inclusion of dancers during our LIVE ART battles.  This week, we had a visit from musician and blogger, Ethan Collister. I enjoyed the privilege of propping up his lyrics (LOL) as he sang an original piece of music titled Midnight Riders for performance AND auction.  Excellent writing and a truly beautiful performance!  Thank you, Ethan!

Photo Credit for this image is once again, Belinda Fireman, with her awesome i phone.

There is creative reading as well as creative writing. Ralph Waldo Emerson