Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways In 100 Days. #90 - Acrylic Skins

Are we really at #90 already?!  I feel as if we've just begun. :-P

One of the things I love about acrylics is their versatility.  There are almost countless oodles of things you can do with them, which makes my inner Mad Scientist cackle with glee.  Today we're going to play with acrylic skins, which are sheets of dried acrylic paint.

Yesterday, I applied paint in various colors to two tempered glass cutting boards that I use as palettes.   The paint was left overnight to dry.

Today, the paint patches were peeled up off of the glass intact.  One of the myriad of things these skins can be used for is collage.

 Acrylics by their very nature lose volume when drying, and thicker skins are much easier to work with.  When I applied the paint to the cutting boards, I thought I applied it thickly enough.  Oh...not so.  When dry, these skins were almost paper thin.  The skins also retain a bit of stickiness until they're fully cured, which means they stick to themselves, to you, and to almost anything else they come in contact with.  The only place they weren't sticking is where I wanted them to.  So the whole exercise was akin to trying to tear sheets of Saran Wrap into little pieces, and glue them to a board.  The words that were flying out of the studio today were not words that you would find in any dictionary.

 Acrylic Skins Bear

Now if you'll excuse me, I believe I'm stuck to my keyboard, and need to go wash up. 

Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways In 100 Days. #84 - Plant Collage

I was puttering around in the gardens this morning, trying to get a few weeds pulled before the next round of thunderstorms, heat, and humidity arrived.

The cat crop is coming in well this year.

The snapdragons, my favorite sun-loving annual, are looking snappy.

The shade garden getting it's touch of morning sun.

Gardening always puts me into a meditative state.  As my hands weeded and pruned and deadheaded, Right Brain was busy pondering what to do with the next bear.  Another 'Unusual Material Collage' seemed like a fun idea...but what to use?  Right Brain went right on contemplating the possibilities as the tending and cutting and watering continued.

Then I stopped.  The answer was right at my fingertips.

I toured the garden, eying and evaluation, snipping and plucking.   The prunings were brought inside, and an organic collage was created.

Fresh From the Garden Collage Bear

Here's a closer look:

The following plants each gave a little bit of themselves for this project:

• Impatiens
• Petunia
• Black-eyed Susan
• Japanese Painted Fern
• Daylily
• Coleus
• Hosta
• Sage
• Balloon Flower
• Purple Coneflower
• Celosia
• Coral Bells
• Astilbe
• Japanese Maple
• Hibiscus
• Barberry
• Smoke Bush
• Dogwood
• Oregano
• Catmint
• Japanese Forest Grass
• Sweet Potato Vine
• Wintercreeper
• Creeping Jenny
• Ajuga

All in all, absolutely the sweetest smelling art project I think I have ever worked on. :-)

Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways In 100 Days. #83 - Sprinkles Collage

When asked for imaginative suggestions on how to create this bear, one idea came up again and again: collage.  Cynthia Schelzig suggested collage and transfers.  A resourceful and interesting, but possibly too time consuming idea for a bear-a-day.  One of Tracy Wall's suggestions was a collage out of wall paper samples.  (A wonderful suggestion that made me grin and chuckle, but when we first moved into our house, almost every room was covered in flocked foil wallpaper.  It felt like we were standing inside a candy bar wrapper.  It took weeks to rid ourselves of that horror.  To this day, wallpaper is not allowed on the premises.)

One of Deb Ward's suggestions was a collage using marshmallows for the lights, and chocolate for the darks.  As I stood in the bakery isle at the grocery store and contemplated the concept of artwork that could be turned into smores,  a sudden vision of those smores going directly to my hips popped into my head.

*Sigh*

Okay, how about something a little less tempting for the Calorically Challenged.  Then these came into view.

Hmmmm...I could work with these.  At home, the bear was sketched, and a thinned mixture of matte soft gel was used as an adhesive.

Sprinkles Collage Bear

I should have stuck with just the sprinkles instead of using the candy shapes in the background, but what the heck, it's all in fun.  And I have decorations the next time I make cookies.  A win-win situation.