Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis from Christen Mazurak-Fike on Vimeo.

India ink, water color, prismacolor marker and 4 x 6 notecards.

The Good: I really enjoyed just letting the water colors do what they wanted. I had no idea what so ever what they were going to look like when I was painting them - I just did whatever I felt like doing with each card. I think it was a fun experiment. It really helped me to feel less rigid and over controlling - something I have a tendency to do.

The Bad: It was frustrating waiting for the water colors to dry, and it was very taxing on my patience to paint each line with india ink. But, again, the ink was a choice I made to make the over all piece more organic and less robotic. I'm a very systematic person, and I have been making an effort to work in different ways to expand my capabilities. So, although I got ink ALL over myself, and although it wasn't fun having wet, semi-wet, and almost dry but not quite cards all over my living room, and then chasing my dog around to keep her from stepping on them, the end result was worth it.

Back Story: As mentioned in the post before this one, the swingset was from my backyard growing up, and the sofa and such are from my current apartment. I chose to use color because I'm more interested in color and texture these days than I am solid lines. In the past, I've relied very heavily on lines to make up a piece, and I feel that to grow as an artist I need to break away from that crutch. I also tend to get very, VERY attached to some lines, and even if they aren't really correct, I don't like to erase them. In order to skip all of that mess, I wanted to explore media and color. Last year, I took a workshop with Dwight Frizzel in which we did several color/texture studies, and although I wasn't really impressed with the results then, I am much more interested in them now. Using the knowledge I gained from that experience, I decided to give the whole random water color splotch idea a try. I hope to try more new things as the year progresses.