evolution of mystery

I've been working on a big piece that pretty much demanded to be done NOW. Artwork is funny like that - so I went along for the ride and now I'll share this piece in three simple steps. Okay, so maybe I only remembered to take two photos along the way & then the final documentation...

These three black & white images, also known as a triptych, were taken a few years ago at Gibson Ranch before I started working in collage. I knew I wanted to do something different with them at the time, but didn't know what exactly, so I waited. Recently I realized what needed to be done so I printed them a couple weeks ago in the darkroom.

I was so jazzed with the darkroom prints that I ran to the art supply store the very next day and bought a 24" x 48" canvas. I immediately taped the photos on the canvas & put it on my home studio wall to begin to feel out the basic composition.

I think it was the next week before I decided to dig into the first collage step, which I put together at my midtown studio between students one day - the burlap happened to be in a box of supplies I had brought for students but it begged to be in the piece & I relented. I spent a serious amount of time just unraveling the burlap to get it just right...

Later I added a couple bird sketches, then some texture with modeling paste & could barely wait for that to dry before I started the pencil work on the photos. A deep violet blue pencil popped out at me, a little more blue than I have been using before, but I went with it...

That was last Friday and I brought it with me to finish the pencilwork at a patron party at the Kennedy Gallery (where I have my midtown studio.) I left it there to return to it for the weekend. Saturday I started adding the acrylic glazes, painting with some of my art compatriots on the patio adjoining our space, Sunday was busier with the Rainbow Festival and I continued the painting in my studio space inside.


(click on this to see more detail)

I brought it home to finish it up, so this is where it was at sometime on Monday, sitting on my mantle in our family room, where I like to assess works in progress.


(click for more detail)

I carefully proceeded to fine tune little details in paint and finally added text in the upper right hand corner, let it dry, varnished it yesterday & photographed it again today, completed. It gets it's title, "Mystery of Faith" from the text of Hebrews 11:1 that I transcribed onto it, "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen, it gives us assurance about things we cannot see."

I'll go more into how that relates to the imagery on my Visions of Heaven blog later...