Dispirited Restoration

Dispirited Restoration was made at the beginning of 2016. I was struggling to keep positive. It was all about feeling destroyed and I needed to focus on rebuilding. I came home from a particularly bad day at work. I went to my studio and just started cutting canvas. The first stroke with the razor blade and I drew blood on my thumb. That was a sign to continue...just cutting and tearing. Then I stitched it back together and dipped the whole canvas into Potassium Permanganate to antique the fabric. Once dry I added a layer of plaster, oil paint, ink, encaustic wax etc...until done.

This piece is very special to me. It helped me heal...

Detail picture of the stitching and skeletal bones.

Acceptance

My Istanbul piece has been accepted into this years Fibrations show in Burlington, Ontario. I actually thought it was bad luck when my submission came back as #001. That meant that I was the very first person to enter a piece. For once in my life I wasn't waiting until the last minute & it worked out for me.

I finally finished this piece on my bench & had enough time to clean up the studio. It's time to get into some fabric....

I haven't named it & not sure a name will be coming. I fell in love with this piece of bark with its wonderful moss & orange speckling. I actually think I collected it over the winter snow shoeing on Many-Hues badlands.
The cicada was given to me by a co-worker who actually doesn't like bugs at all. The wax worked wonderful & didn't damage the delicate wings when dipped.  A very impressive bug indeed.