Phoenix Rising: Big Yellow is Given New Life

 

 

 

In May, 2010, my friend Destree and I did a collaborative show we called Strange Voices From the Abyss. We had great fun creating a series of pieces for the show that hung at Venti's in downtown Salem for a couple of months. We sold several pieces on opening night. One of the pieces that sold (to my daughter Melissa) was Big Yellow.

I was never satisfied with the piece, actually, I never really liked it. I had tried unsuccessfully to get it back from Melissa every time I visited her in Tacoma. Then one day I offered her a trade: two for one. I gave her a small piece of art and a big one. This is the big one she got in exchange for Big Yellow.

 

I took Big Yellow to my studio and applied a layer of gesso; that didn't really do the trick so I scraped and scrubbed it down until it was pretty bare and then applied another layer of gesso.

 

 

 

 

 

In September, I took a class from William Park at Sitka and tossed in my prepared and repurposed canvas. I started out by playing with some bright swaths of color, then got the inspiration to do blocks of white acrylic over the color in a grid-like fashion, allowing the color beneath the grid to peek through.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Needing some art above the couch, I pulled out my revamped, renovated piece of art. It works. For now, anyway.

 

 

Quite a bit different from the original piece we did. I hope you like it, Destree!