Once upon a time there was an interesting pile of sticks in my driveway. They caught my eye.

I photographed them, simplified the design in PhotoShop, and prepared them in two versions: a positive and negative.

Then I ordered the images as printable silkscreens, about 7” x 9” image size each. This was several years ago.  Since then I’ve incorporated the twigs into a number of my artworks. I like them a lot. I like the way the positive and negative speak to each other. I have used them in fabric works and in small paper works.

I am looking ahead to a submission due in August for a SAQA Global exhibit on the theme of Fire. I want to depict the loss after a fire. I am in the beginning of inspiration-for-the-composition stage of this new work, and I turned again to my faithful twig printing screens.

But… with a twist.

The paper stencil placed on the fabric is one I hand cut from card stock, based on an enlargement of the twig pattern in its usual size. I want to mix and match the same patterns in different sizes.

And now for some printing.

Here is painted fabric, rolling acrylic paint with a foam roller over my new stencil. After the first position, I just moved the stencil around so the twigs would appear randomly placed.

The bottom section is screen printed, using my usual size image of the twigs. I have overlapped the print hits in this section too.

I had one piece left of the fabric I had pre-painted with the olive and red splashes, and on that section I screen printed the twig negative image, so the background is dark and the underneath colors form the twigs.

For now, these pieces are on my work table, next to more pieces I have printed over the last few months. I have a vision for the new work, but not a composition yet. I’m interested in letting it evolve.

. . . .

Meanwhile… I completed a few collages using the bright green fabrics I wrote about last week. (Plus two other collages in a slightly different palette)

Thanks for the great comments. Looks like the color bright green has a big fan club!

I hope you’ll take time to visit my website and see how these turned out. COLLAGES

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

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