Five for One

In between real life activities, I’ve been working away on my five collages promised for the One Auction coming in February. Three of them are ready to go.

© 2010 BJ Parady

This one is called Still Waters 2, because looking at it reminds me of looking down into the still, shallow water in a creek or a river–there’s a lot going on in that space, life and muck and water and the play of light off of surfaces.

The base layer of all these pieces (well, the base that shows–they all have 140lb watercolor paper at the very back) is a piece of the leftover paper painted during the disperse transfer dye process–even when they no longer print, these papers still contain deep and interesting colors. They do tend to smear when wet, so the first thing I do is either use a spray on fixative (made for pastel painters) or do a quick, light coat of medium–and if it spreads a little, that’s ok.

Additional layers might be more paper, fabric, stitching (machine), paint, screen printing, more medium, whatever. Because the finished works might be sold to someone living outside the United States, I couldn’t include any plant materials.

© 2010 BJ Parady

This is Still Waters 3. The papers (regular printer paper–cheaper the paper, the better it seems to work with DT dyeing) wrinkled some when I was sealing them down. At first I fought this, but then I realized I kind of liked the effect–added depth, suggested definition of spaces. So I went with it.

© 2010 BJ Parady

Still Waters 5 is the third piece of the series bound for the auction. The three raised squares are embossed batting colored with Shiva paintsticks. Not sure what they represent, but they looked good there.

Before inquiring minds want to know, yes, Still Waters 1 and 4 exist. But they were not up to snuff for such an occasion as this. Two more collages are in process, and I’ll post them when they’re done.

The One auction is a great way to help an important cause–all, repeat ALL, of the money you spend on art work goes directly to the American Cancer Society–which in turn funds research, patient education, support for a disease that affects us all these days. Mark your calendar for Feb. 16, 2011, and receive some art while doing good. Nineteen other artists and me would appreciate it.