Sometimes… things just don’t work out. This painting was first created for a show with The Midwest Collage Society called Remnants and Remembrances. Found lost in a dark corner of a forgotten drawer, I discovered an old story describing my futuristic city. Written when I was about eight years old, it was inspiring to see my handwritting and I was astonished that it was accompanied by a drawing. The first layer of the design used altered copies of the story and the drawing. I threw everything and the kitchen sink into it: molding paste, crackle paste, glass bead gel and oil paint. The finished painting was too wet to deliver to the show so I had to back out. That is when I realized how horribly wrong it had gone. I struggled and fought the nature of the design becoming desperate to make it work. Driven almost to madness, I ran out to the nearest hardware store and bought an oribital sander. Power tools can be quite liberating. Obliterating layers with the sander outside of the studio I felt that fun childlike excitement building when I saw the face emerging from the the shadows. Pleased, I entered it in a show where it was awarded a ribbon. Wow, someone likes it! Casually observing it over months while it hung on wall I grew more and more dissatisfied. I decided to read my story again and let the words and the drawing guide the design. Scratching out layers of oil paint to bring back that first layer of collage I started feeling content. Here is the before and after which truly holds remnants and remembrances.
