Friday, September 12, 2008

Not sure about this

I mounted and waxed the little collage on the barn board but not sure I like wax on the barnboard. It dulls the color and looks messy to me. I have melted some of this wax off. The girl is my mom.

For this one and the next I only waxed the actual collage, leaving the barn board as is.

Hard work sawing these pieces of wood. And not sure I find these setups as interesting as I had anticipated. But I will finish the rest to have some stock. Soup anyone?

12 comments:

Lynn Cohen said...

Ready for an honest critique?For me the top one is too waxy for my taste. And the two bottom buttons make it look like a TV set with dials. The bottom too are much better in my humble opinion showing the beautiful wood. I cannot see the girl and boy well at all in the other one. Nix too much wax.
Otherwise, lovely collages, and lovely wood.

sukipoet said...

thanks Lynn. I appreciate your comment and honesty. I agree about too much wax and possibly about the buttons. Namaste, Suki

Mary Richmond said...

hi suki--although the texture and weight of the boards are great fun they are maybe too textured and heavy for your work--or at least the scale of the work you are using here. the wax seems to bring out even more woodiness, if you know what i mean. i think your collages need lighter backings....but don't give up. maybe some heavier, darker pieces would work with these?

also, am having a giveaway of some cards over on my blog so if any of your friends here would like to stop on over...please do! hope you don't mind me posting this here...

http://www.maryrichmonddesign.typepad.com

and thanks for all your recent comments, suki ;-)

sukipoet said...

Hi Mary. Well, that's something I hadnt thought of. I just thought the wood was old and the collages faux old and so they might go together. You may be right about that. Originally I was going to mount them on canvas.

Andrea and Kim said...

Suki, I think Mary is right about your work being delicate and the wood being "rough".

But you know something else I am seeing...on the first one, the wax makes a gloss which gives an interesting balance to the very rough wood. I am wondering if you just leave a thin layer of the wax, so it shows the wood as glossy and maybe using some of your other natural materials to create collages directly on the wood. Does that make sense?

I don't think you should give up on either of these plans because they both can work well, in my opinion. And maybe even some fragile elements (in my mind, lace) would work well, too...kind of a leather and lace thing. I am just kind of prattling here, though. I think there are a ton of possibilities here.

sukipoet said...

Kim, it's true that what I am doing is using old collages that have been sitting around, whereas if I did your idea, thanks, of making a new collage right onto the wood it might integrate better rather than just being plopped on top like this. there sure is plenty of this barn board around here to be used. It is all narrow of course. But long. My bro says he's going to make a bookcase out of the wood. Onward.

Andrea and Kim said...

Glad that made sense, Suki! I had to come back to see if I was loosing my mind or what. I wasn't sure if it was just a jumble of words or it actually made sense. Glad it was the making sense one! :)

A bookshelf...wow, it looks really rough for that, but hey, I don't know what he has in mind for it. Right!

Oh, I just thought of something. You could use longer lengths of the board and create collages like a triptych or diptych kind of thing. What do you think of that? It would be larger and fewer cuts, too. Rambling again...

sukipoet said...

Kim thanks for taking such an interest. The back of the barnboard is smooth, so if you put the rough on the outside you have a smooth inside.

I do like that idea of less cuts and doing a diptych or triptych. In fact it might hold much more interest as a piece. I have a section I can try that on. Thanks. You are full of great ideas.

soulbrush said...

i can't criticize as i don't have any experience, i just like what i see.

marianne said...

Love the middle one, to me to wood serves as a frame here And just like SB said I just love what i see (or not) and I like the middle one the best

sukipoet said...

thanks soulbrush. You are too kind.

Marianne, thanks for pinpointing one that you gravitated toward. I like that one too. Am now thinking of putting some lace around edge of collage. Yes, I did mean the wood to be like a frame and measured it that way.

human being said...

love them so much... wood is full of energy... love the works on/with wood...

you're right... the wood without wax is more lively.... alive