Discoveries in Painting

I've mentioned a few times that I was working on a 'super secret art project' and also that I was REALLY excited about. Not only is this project itself amazing, but the doors it opens up for my future are (as of right now) endless.

I guess I should explain. I'm in a painting class right now titled "Mixed Media Painting Workshop", which was required for my major. I had absolutely no interest in taking this class prior to the beginning of the semester. 1) Because I am just not a 'collage' type person and 2) I heard the teacher is rather odd. Turns out I was wrong about both. The class is so much more than collage and the teacher is a little weird, but I love him. He lets us do pretty much whatever we want and really helps us expand our thinking. 

Anyways our latest project was a 'surface' project, as in we had to explore different surfaces for painting.  The first day was our workshop, where we just had to bring in random surfaces to experiment with paint on. Being a knitter, I decided to knit up a swatch of white Red Heart (What else would I EVER use it for anyways). Doing that was torture, I couldn't believe I ever LIKED Red Heart! But that day in class I did some experiments with the paint and mediums on it and I really liked was I saw. My teacher then told us that we should try and make 3 dimensional surfaces, his example being using wire to build a structure to put paper around. The second he said 3D the wheels in my head started turning. 

I think the work speaks for itself:

There are so many things I really like about this project. I got to knit for school, which was a plus. The ball pattern was easy and quick, as well as Red Heart being more manageable in balls than swatches. For every ball I just went at it with random paint, no real plan in mind. Each one is unique and shows a different technique of applying the paint to the surface.  I originally wanted just the balls to be on the wall, but then I thought more about it and how the project was structured and figured they needed to be mounted, so I went with some super cheap plexi glass. The painting of the glass came as a second process, for I wanted the balls to look like extensions of the glass more than added on after. 

This project has opened up so many doors for senior studio next year. I am slowly filling a special sketch book with ideas for where I want to take the knitting and painting thing. Some of them are very interesting, let me tell you. I think I've also finally figured out what I want to do with my degree (cuz I haven't said that before!). I plan on going to grad school for painting and then teaching at a university while being an artist. If I can keep doing things like this for awhile, I will be more than content with being a 'professional painter'.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! It's in the 90's here! Maybe I'll spend some time outside this weekend.

~Lisa

PS: The title for this work is (appropriately): Yarn Bombs.