My original artwork is 8×8 and is a double-sided piece (I had it weighed at the U.S.P.S. and it weighs exactly 1lb). I have shown the stencil in its original form on the flip side of the canvas. I was inspired to create a "dream" garden window where I painted the stencil using acrylic paints over the Mylar and adhered them using beeswax as glue. Then I painted the gallery mount as if it were window trim. On the front, I deconstructed the stencil using half of it as the sun and some of the stencil petals as shrubbery and the inside of the stencil as a flower (seen in close-up). The stencil petals were used to create a near replica using joint compound (upper left of front side).
This mixed media work consists of acrylic paints, cloth, paper, beeswax, joint compound, india ink, rubber stamps & sharpie markers.
Stenciled Garden, as a theme, brought me back to my childhood. I recall the first stencil I ever used was paper and I was in Kindergarden. I remember thinking how much fun it was to make a shape by tracing inside the paper and lifting it off to reveal, like magic, an exact likeness. Now playing with a stencil is entirely different. because I now can look at objects abstractly. So, instead of being delighted to exactly replicate the whole I am compelled to break it apart.
I also remember my cousin and I, when we were young, accompanying my father in his garden. In the summer it was a place where beans grew clinging to teepee poles and in the winter we could still see a few hardy stalks in the earth-yellow with toug woody vines and amazingly something green still held on to the plant. The colors and the hardiness of life their, no matter the season, always amazed me.
I called this piece Kinder-Garden recalling where I first used a stencil and my curiousity as a child entering or playing in the garden. I know my art is inspired by all of what I hold in my heart and mind.
I love the way the beeswax gives a dreamy, atmospheric quality to the piece. I also think it’s cool that you used some of the petals separately, and documented the original stencil on the back. Way to go!!!!
Your piece is so beautiful!!!
This is my FAVORITE! I love the artist’s use of the stencil on both the front and back of the canvas. Very creative!
Very creative use of the Stencil. I especially like the use of negative space at the bottom right. Beautiful work!!