Chatterbox

As often as I have a painting that I struggle with, I have one like this that just falls together before my eyes. The bulls eye begins where her mouth would be, sort of an epicenter for all the noise. All the collaged bits of type came from vintage magazines. I use acrylic transfers, rather than collaging the old papers for conservation reasons, collaged papers disintegrate quickly, and the acid released in the process can "burn" other parts of the painting. So I transfer the ink into acrylic paint, and wash the paper away. Chatterbox was stitched with a running stitch, and then painted, there is a bit of pearlescent paint in there, to tie to the mother of pearl buttons.

There aren't many ways I can get away with using pink that doesn't come across as super sweet and girly, but a strong element such as a bulls eye seems to be the answer in this case!

I showed this piece for the first time in Tampa, and spoke with many people about the process. The question posed as often as others is "where do you get all your ideas?" I guess the simple answer is I am always, always, always, looking for them. They arrive most often as I am about to fall asleep, or in the car, very rarely when I am sitting at the drawing board searching for one. Often times the answer to one problem comes when I am working on another. And sometimes they come from you. A fellow walked through my booth, saw this piece and said, "ya oughta do one called motormouth..." And he was gone, I don't even remember what he looked like, my head just instantly filled with the possibilities for a "motormouth" painting. It's not quite on the drawing board yet, but I am gathering the elements, look out world!

This "Chatterbox" has sold (yay!)