Friday, July 29, 2011

Replacing Mona Lisa

I went to visit my family this spring and while taking out the trash, I discovered a treasure. In the dumpster. Someone had either redecorated or possibly evicted someone with Pop Art tastes, disposing of his graphic interpretation of Mona Lisa done in oranges and poison greens. The canvas was probably 36x40. SCORE!! I was going to be in town 3 weeks and was beginning to miss studio messes. Unfortunately, no one I knew in town had any painting supplies. However, I did plan a visit to my friend, The Visionary, in a town 3 hours away and I thought she might at least have some house paint I could prept the canvas with. I dragged Mona Lisa along on the visit and returned a week later with a relatively covered canvas ready for my use. But if you look closely, you might be able to see the 4 famed faces I brushed over.
As I had no paints, I determined to work out a shape of a large butterfly using torn newspaper to fill in the negative space. Butterflies are my mother's passion and the final piece would stay behind and hang over the door to the patio.


Once a vague butterfly shape  had been collaged onto the prepared canvas, Mom and I went through her wrapping paper stash, pulling colors she prefers for her house. We also went to the craft store and purchased pack of tissue paper. From this found and purchased paper, a butterfly emerged.
The final touches included some stray tissue and a meandering flight line.

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