Yarn, Zen, and How-to
Hot enough for you? Oh, it’s definitely warm enough for me. Yesterday it was 106 here in Beaverton, Oregon. I remember back in February when it was freezing!
Looking ahead to those freezing days when some warmth might be appropriate, here is some cozy-looking Yarn Art I created for the Recycle/Upcycle themed show at Village Gallery of Arts: “Summer Hills”. I had some fun with it. My rule was to use whatever I had leftover or lying around, and not purchase a single new item. I kept things simple and let the yarn create the forms. The gold seed beads were from a broken necklace.
…If you’re interested in this style of art, you might like browsing my Yarn Art Gallery.
Many Zen Buddhist concepts and ideas transcend the use of words and intellectual discourse, and instead can be understood through embodied experience. In this spirit let me introduce Shunyata 1. It’s an initial attempt to visually represent a Zen concept of emptiness.
I consider it to be similar to “Rainforest Moon” except with the subject completely removed. You may have noticed many circle shapes in my work…the circle shape is something that comes up for me naturally when I calm my executive function, just as the Enso is a breath captured in a single round brushstroke.
When the mind is free to let the body create, is this what Zen art can be?
“Shunyata 1”, Acrylics on a 10 x 10 inch cradled board. $180
How-To: Snail Sovereign Walkthrough
To thank you for being a subscriber, here’s a tutorial I created just for you! It’s a step by step description of how I painted this piece using plastic film texturing, the alcohol drip technique to create cells, and painting using thin layers of acrylic paint.
I hope you find it interesting or inspires you to try out acrylics in a new way. If you do pick up some paints and experiment, send me a photo of the textures you created, either in-process or as a finished piece. We can all inspire each other…
Just send an email with an attachment to me at leah@leahjayart.com. I may share your work in my next newsletter, we’ll see!
Take care of yourselves, and stay cool out there…
