More Sketchbook Activity

Here are two more pages I created for my sketchbook. The "Spring Songbird Symphony" I started thinking about last spring - I heard all these birds at once and I wanted to recreate the experience, but I wasn't sure how: poetry? music? collage? I finally got the idea to create something that is a combination of the three. I hope it captures the feeling of a spring morning walk.

And now we skip ahead to autumn! I cut a bunch of canvas rectangles to fit into the sketchbook and have been treating the backgrounds in various ways, then stitching, stamping or writing to complete the "sketch." Again, I consider this a sketch because it's not quilted through three layers and it's quick - not too much pondering and critical thinking, just doing it. Here, I put a layer of gesso down on the canvas first, and used a comb-type tool to make a groovy texture before it dried. When it was dry, I added color with the water-soluble crayons and blended them with a brush and my finger. Finally, I stamped on some leaves and stitched on the large one cut from an interesting paper I had in my stash.

Finally, here is my "Facetious" piece. The definition I was working with for facetious was "to treat a serious subject lightly." I chose a serious subject (war) and found some public domain photos on the web. I transferred them to white fabric using the CitraSolv method. Then I chose fabrics and embellishments in light, happy colors and layed everything out like a page in a scrapbook.

Unfortunately, I think the contrast between the serious subject matter and the light, happy colors goes beyond merely being facetious. To me, it borders on inappropriate, insensitive and disrespectful. That certainly was not my intention; I was only trying to be facetious!