How to Create Art Upcycling & Repurposing "Leftovers" - which I don't believe in anymore.
On the other side of my blog both last month and this month is a series that was created to inspire reader’s blogging, writing & creative thinking. I didn’t realize how much I would come to love creating it. I love quotes – so they provide the foundation – and every day I include an image with a quote.
I have a ridiculous number of photos in my flickr account to pluck through for the “right image.” Today I used a five year old image I took as a selfie, but is really of a map. If you want to see what I mean, check out today’s quote, prompt and image. I’m featuring Julia Cameron, who many of you may know from The Artist’s Way (and other) books.
My most recent (and surprisingly favorite) collection of images is of Shopping Carts. I started photographing them last Winter and ever since I can’t stop myself. There are layers to this fascination.
Yesterday I mentioned briefly I have learned to love the silences within the writing.
This is what I have created via the Inspiration for Your Blogging, Writing & Creativity Series. I purposefully prompt readers to step back from their writing and let the non-language of the self conscious have space to be heard, even if it is only via sleep.
My shopping carts are like that. I can go weeks without finding any of note and then, in one day, I may find three. In tomorrow’s post, guess what you’ll be seeing? It will be quite different from much of my book art love, but the social justice side of me is pushing her way in and the only way to stop the pushing is to surrender and share.
Today, though – I want to share more whimsy.
This piece was made on some scrap wood I bought last Spring at a rummage sale. I bought nearly a shopping cart full of wood scraps that were just right for me to use as foundations for art.
I created this one in layers over several months time. The board itself was first primered and then I accidentally dripped some paint from an upcycling project on it. Well, I liked how it looked, so I dripped some more purple paint on it and swirled it and I liked it. Then I brought it with me to the Art and Spirituality Center and put a quote on there from Pema Chodron about sitting meditation. The “STAY!” you see is from her original quote.
I painted another layer – the pink – and added to the top of the paint a swirl from my intention chair – which is still in process. When I cut the swirl for that, I created a left over. I don’t believe in left overs anymore, so I knew it would find its way into another piece and here it it.
I wrote a few more quotes – which I wanted to be seen but not seen completely. Those words are from Agnes DeMille and Anne Sexton, a dancer-choreographer and a poet, respectively.
I appreciate the concept of leaving a question for people who look at the stuff I make, not me spoon feeding the meaning to them.
I dug through my scraps and found die cut flowers from – naturally – book pages.
I scattered them upon the wood and said, “YES!”
It is simply complex or complexly simple. I can’t wait to see what is happening in your world. I hope you will leave a comment so I may be sure to check you out, too.
What is happening along your adventures in Art Every Day land?
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You may still join Art Every Day Month - Leah Piken Kolidas has been inspiring many of us for years! Check it out -
Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
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