V-owl-intine (A sticky situation)

In planning for a 'sticky situation', I thought of how love or having a crush on someone can be a sticky situation. Sometimes people don't know how to show how they feel - and that is the semi-humorous meaning behind my painting.

The owl is flying towards the viewer, holding a human heart - poor, misunderstood fellow. He just can't figure out how to say how he feels.

My repetition, as required for the project, is in the feathers, layered one right after the other.

In thinking outside the box, I decided to attach real feathers to the canvas with hot glue, canvas scraps, and Guesso. 

Adding feathers provided the extra challenge of blending the painted feathers in with the real ones - something I hadn't tried to do before. 

When I finally finished Mr. Owl,  I learned that mixed media is a challenging, yet rewarding concept for me - I will be doing more mixed media in the future!

Up Close and Personal

 It has been said that the eyes are the window to the soul. For my 'Up Close and Personal' project, I drew up many ideas - a floating couple in space, personal things to me in macro, and mug shots of wolves were amongst the lot. I settled on a large, up close eye with my home reflected in it. The iris is glancing away, rather than staring at the observer, giving a wistful expression - a longing, distant sort of stare.

 By using dark shadows and bright highlights, I emphasized the reflection in the pupil. I chose acrylic paint as my medium, because I wanted to work with rich color on a larger scale piece.

 The risk i took with this project was painting a reflection in the eye - I was tempted to leave it alone once I finished the original eye. Of the 5 characteristics of good art, (technique, concept, emotion, new, medium) I believe that I had a unique emotion to my piece, as well as a difficult concept to pull off. 

In the end, my piece was not exactly as I envisioned it, but I think it communicates my meaning - The place we grow up, our homes, they holds a meaning to us. Your hometown and home-place is piece of your soul, one that shapes the person you become. Some homes are broken, some are less than what we want, but the place you grow up will always hold significance for you. For me, this wistful stare into the past, with a hidden twist about what I plan for my future, is what I wanted to show in my piece.