This life we live...it's strange, painful at times, but oh so beautiful.

I am a fusion dance artist and teacher, a fire dancer, and a visual artist. I draw inspiration from nature, music, and the amazing people that come into my life. I am also a conservationist who makes jewelry and found object multimedia craft type art in my spare time (when I'm not reading, writing, or lighting things on fire and dancing around with them). I love to dance barefoot on the beach, watch the stars move inexorably across the heavens, and to laugh with the people that I love. I am currently based in Greenville SC, working with Discordia Arts to provide unique and exciting entertainment to the Upstate.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

More Happy Accidents in Silk

So often, I decide that I want to try something and I have no idea how it's going to work out. I guess that an important trait in art as well as in life is to have the courage to try something new while knowing that you very well may fail.

Something I have attempted multiple times and never been able to do is paint a person's face in detail. Silk isn't easy, and though I know it's possible, I've had difficulty in the past with the human form. Shading in detail enough to create highlights on a face that are relatively realistic is difficult on silk, so what I decided to try this time was painting very pale washes of pink and brown onto wet silk. I was hoping that since the colors were light and I was working on wet silk that I would be able to fade out the edges and create gentle highlights.

I made a sketch and transferred the sketch to silk. I hated the hair - it looked awful...so I changed it, using a technique that I've used in small scale, breaking up the hair in small sections to give the finished piece a very mosaic look...and I'm thrilled with the results. Today I'm going to attempt to remove the old hair resist lines and paint in an abstract background around her.

Silk Painting

1 comment:

  1. Wow!!! You're so talented and prolific!!! She is beautiful!

    ReplyDelete