A large part of what art is for me is the creation process itself. I have been watching and documenting the creation of a certain piece that is doing very interesting things.
I first painted the whole canvas with a mixture of gum arabic and a rusty red powdered pigment that I purchased at the Creative Reuse Center in Oakland, California.* This pigment is probably very toxic, and whenever I use this or any other powdered pigment, I make sure to wear a dust mask. On top of the red, I put a mixture of some water with the same red pigment, as well as white powdered milk paint. I'm not sure if milk paint is a very competitive market, but the only brand I've seen or used is by a company called The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Company. It's fun stuff. It reacts in very interesting ways, and if you like to experiment with texture, I suggest getting some milk paint.
ANYWAY, long story short, crazy things began to happen! First, it began to bubble...then, it began to sweat. The milk paint formed pores, and from each pore, a tiny droplet of moisture arose. Very interesting. Here is a picture of the sweat.
You'll definitely have to click to get a close up view of this one. I appreciate this because it seems so human to me. Not only is the paint a very fleshy color, but it is having such a humanistic response. I quite like this.Once the sweat began to evaporate, the paint began to form beautiful cracks like dried mud on the bottom of a riverbed.
As you can see, the outside has dried much faster than the still sweaty center. Once this stage dries, I plan to paint more layers. I just thought I'd share this as is for now.
In other news, I over drafted my bank account today. But that can't break my spirit!
Keep on keepin on, folks.
* I love the Creative Reuse Center. It is heaven for people like me. Stuff you'll find there - most weird craft things that are sort of pointless to the untrained eye, but beautiful and special to folks like you and I.
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