"Spring Cleaning"

Yeah, I know it's not spring, and I'm, for sure, not cleaning, so let me explain. Every year, about this time, when other people are making resolutions to change their lives, I want to paint over all of my canvases. For the most part, I try to restrain myself and only pick a couple that need refurbishing. The one I picked this year had some nice colors and some interesting shapes, but really was only part of a painting. I have been watching it for some time, trying to decide what its next life will be. I think I have found it.

I have been doing a series of mixed media pieces (printmaking, collage, painting, anything else that doesn't run faster than I do!) with birds as the subject. I showed the first piece I did on the last posting. On Saturday, I rifled through our recycling bins at LibertyTown and found some aluminum cans. I removed the tops and bottoms and cut out fun bird shapes. My friend Sharon has brought me several kinds of adorable buttons with brads on them, so I punched a hole where a birdie eye would be and used the brads. Here are a few of the googly-eyed birds.


Back to the painting getting a makeover...I plan to pair these birds with that painting. I prepared a tree for them to roost in today. The tape sections with sharpie writing tell me which birdies will sit where. I'm still working out how they will attach to the canvas. (By the way, there is more canvas and tree than shows in this photo. I took the photo at an odd angle, so had to crop it in a funky way!)