Tuesday, June 11, 2013

the lightning rod

A few months ago I decided I wanted to try some mixed media art. Hey, I thought--I have several copies of Robinson Crusoe, why not use the pages of the junky copy to make the background?

I admit, I felt slightly sacrilegious cutting up and modpodging pages of a book to a blank canvas.

But it really was a badly worn out paperback that I probably spent 50 cents on at the used bookstore, my inner voice of self-justification whines.

Still. It went a bit against the grain. I love books. I never throw them away (unless you count some of the iffier books that were given to me as presents by people who obviously had no idea about what I would consider innapropriate. Ahem.)

Yesterday, after much hemming and hawing over what I actually wanted to do with said canvas, I decided to paint a buffalo.

I like buffalo. I think they're neat. I like to imagine a place where herds of buffalo roam, free as the wind, and for some reason in my mind there are deer and antelope cavorting there as well. I would probably call that cloudless place my home, because nobody would discourage me and there are buffalo. Anyway. Here's Bernadette.

bernadette



When my husband came home last night, I showed him Bernadette. His response was, "Hungh. Tatanka," followed by "!!!" when he noticed that I had defiled a book in the interests of making art.

Today's weather report shows that there's a 50% chance I'm going to get struck by lightning. Kinda wish I'd held on to that copy of Rubber Suitmaking For Dummies.

3 comments:

LynneP said...

I think your Tatanka-Bernadette is simply wonderful. There is a herd of buffalo living not far from me in Albuquerque, owned by one of the local Indian tribes. It gives me great pleasure to watch them. Using the book pages as background was inspired!

Jenn Grigoryev (jenn of all trades) said...

Thanks! And I'm so jealous, I would love to see a real herd of buffalo.

Lynz said...

You're so clever, Jenn. And I think the book gods will forgive you - you've used it to create more art, after all.