gouache, oil pastels, watercolors, and casein paint on plaster covered with beeswax

a few weeks ago, when i made the plaster substrate for 'her wings were invisible', (here) i made another piece to use later; it sat outside for a couple of weeks until i sawed it in half lengthwise a few days ago. i got two long, narrow pieces that i didn't crack, just glued them to some cardboard. i thought they might be the covers for a plaster book...


then i made some more pieces on paper about the thickness of poster paper, and since then i've kind of lost interest in the book idea! now i'm thinking that i'll make a stack of them and then make a box for them. but who knows!


one thing i've learned is that plaster cloth on plaster gets much harder than plaster cloth on plaster cloth. i know, it sounds confusing, but the idea is that plaster cloth stuck to itself is still very easy to carve into (and this is what i've worked on in the past), whereas plaster cloth on plaster is like concrete. it's not easy to carve into.

the reason i put the plaster cloth on there was to see if it would 'heal' the places where i cracked the piece in my impatience to get on with things. the piece was flopping around, broken, so i put a strip of plaster cloth over the cracks, and like magic it was rigid again. now i know that i can 'repair' floppy pieces...


my art table a couple of nights ago... two plaster pieces for me to gaze at while i worked in 'the merry men'. ; )

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“The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: a human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. (…)

Without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless creating.”

~ Pearl Buck, via tumblr

XO