Jan's Art and Musings

I’ve completed this piece from Susan Sorrell’s Personal Symbols course. I used Timtex, which was quite stiff, but I like the way it took the acrylic paint mixed with water. I added free machine stitching before adding shapes. The shapes are paper; buildings are brown paper bags, other shapes are artist papers. Once all shapes were glued down, I covered the piece with Soft Gel medium. I thought it would be challenging to do hand stitching and beading because of the stiffness but it wasn’t difficult. I actually like the way it handles the beads. There’s not enough contrast for the quote, but I’m pleased with the way it turned out.

I tend to use shapes of buildings a lot in my work. The house shape represents home life and security. I also use trees, which represents strength to me. The spiral is one of my favorite shapes/symbols representing growth and change. This class is helpful in allowing me to review my art and see which shapes/symbols appear frequently, which is helpful in this continual quest to find my “artist voice.”