On Stencils

I've been playing a lot with stencils--they're pretty awesome, and you can get some really neat effects with them.  I love them, and I've acquired... more than I'm entirely comfortable thinking about, really.  Which reminds me, I've just gotten some new ones that I need to make sure are properly put with the others and indexed so I can find them and I can quit anytime I want, really!  I don't have a problem!

..Actually, that's wrong. Turns out I do have a problem, and like many problems, the solution is to be found at the end of more work than I originally planned to put into it.

See, I love stencils.  They're awesome, and as I play with them more, I realize there are really two kinds--stencils, where the paint you put through them is the picture, and masks, where the paint you put through them DEFINES the picture.

This is the clearest example I have--the two are quite literally the reverse of one another.

 There are options in between, of course--patterns, for instance, where both parts make up the idea, an the like.  And all of them are sold as 'stencils'.  For clarity's sake here though, I will refer to them as separate things, because that difference is important. 

Because, in general, I like masks better than I like stencils. I like the idea that I can get as crazy and creative as I want on the bottom layer, and then just black out everything that's not the picture I want.  And quite a lot of what you can just go buy is stencils, not masks.

And suddenly I want options that I just do not have.

Well, that's okay, I can make stencils, right?  Sure I can! I even have blanks!

And so I made my very first real stencil (well, okay, the *very* first one was a cut-out heart to test things, but as it didn't require the exacto-knife, I'm kind of not counting it.)  I wanted a leaf pattern for a 4x6" post card, and I didn't have anything that would do the leaves the way I wanted them, as a mask rather than a stencil.  So, fine--I have trees!  (oh, do I have trees!)  I grabbed three different sizes of leaf off one of my sweetgum volunteers, traced them out, and got to cutting.

And it was a pain in the ass, but I'm pleased with how it came out, and I learned a lot in the cutting.

Sweetgum mask, obviously having been used a few times

First test print on a 4x6" index card

That gave me what I was looking for--a nice pretty print of leaves, repeatable, where the pattern on the leaves would be whatever I did first, rather than trying to lay down my colors and complexity through the plastic.  (I left a frame around the 4x6 cutout area, so I would have something to hold onto to keep it still while applying paint.  I've done this twice now and I think in future I need to just carry the pattern out to the edges of the plastic to allow for holding, rather than cutting a frame; I just don't have as much room as I'd like for layering.)

This is the final product that I cut the stencil for.  I am absurdly pleased with it.

Since then I've done a few free-form masks, cut at least one more with a frame (again, probably the last one), and planned out a piece for the fall guild show.  I want it to be leaves, too, but it's going to be a larger piece.  So I started planning out what I want, and of course, there still aren't the leaf options I want in commercially available stencils and masks. 

So last night I drew this out.  I... I've got a lot of cutting to do.

....What on earth have I gotten myself into?

Inspiration, and trees

Guild bios are due tomorrow, and as a lifelong procrastinator, I've been putting it off.  (I am a member of the Carolina Mixed Media Art Guild, which is one reason I'm writing this blog to explore my artistic side rather than just making necklaces while I watch TV.  They show me fun things to do, and then I want to do them. It. Is. Awesome.)   And I want to share and expand on it some of mine.

Given the question, "Tell us about your work, inspiration, and any other comments you may have:" I had a little trouble, because I find many many things to be inspiring.  Right now, not surprisingly, I find a lot of trees to be inspiring, because it is still the barest beginnings of spring.  The redbuds are starting, and the Bradfords are blooming (well, most of them; the one I moved a couple weeks ago isn't blooming but it is leafing, which gives me good hope that we didn't kill it and it didn't bloom last year either, so maybe it just needs to be more than two years old). The dogwoods haven't begun yet, and the saucer magnolias are just coming into their own.

What I'm trying to say is, I can still see the incredible structure of trees, everywhere.  Right now this is a lot of my inspiration, because what started out as a closer look so that I might be able to replicate has become a full-on almost obsession.  I can't NOT see it.  I can't not see it even when I'm supposed to be watching the road in front of me, which is difficult, because trees are everywhere and every one of them is an intimate complex amazing fractal creation of life, and rebirth, and solid persistence, and joy, and love.  They are glorious. I catch myself watching subtle shifts of color and trying to track up into the cloud of branches, and the way the light falls on some branches and not others.  I can't stop looking at them.  I don't know whether it will get less distracting once they're coming into full leaf or not, but for now, well...

I can see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wildflower*.... but for inspiration, I dare you to outdo a tree.


*(William Blake: "To see a world in a grain of sand/And heaven in a wild flower/Hold infinity in the palms of your hand/And eternity in an hour")