Machanica anatomica

It's been a bit since I've posted anything on my blog. I don't have any exciting excuses other than we've been house shopping and that's sucked the creative juices out of me for a long time. I recently sold some work and the same client commissioned me to do some work for her as a gift to her loved ones.

Since my thesis, I've been obsessed (I say this in a creative obsession sort of way) with creating images to be stored in shadowboxes. My paper dolls, or anatomical hearts.

Hearts aren't a new subject for my work. I've been trying to find ways to squeeze them into my work for a long time. Usually they're just the simple symbolic representation. But lately I've been taking that up a notch. The anatomical machine that is the heart.

I'm not the first to depict the heart as a machine. I'm not doing anything avant garde. But this is my own passion. I'm thoroughly enjoying the process of drawing, painting and assembling. My creative space and process would probably make Henry Ford proud.

Enough chit-chat, lets get to the creation porn.

This is the first project that I've done in a while where I didn't sketch out my image before applying it directly to the paper. So, just in case, I made three different versions to see which one would look the best.

TV personality and chef Bobby Flay once said something that stuck with me. It wasn't about art of course, it was about food. Basically, he said that when you're making pancakes, always throw out the first one because it will definitely be a flop. This seemed to ring true to my "on the fly" painting project. The image on the right is the first heart I started painting. The one on the left is one that I was half-heartedly (sorry, bad pun) painting at the same time. It wasn't until I finished that I realized I didn't really like the way that my first one turned out and I turned my attentions to the heart that became the final piece of art.

Beginning stages of paint on the third and final heart.

Close to completion. Just a few minor details.

I added some "rusty" areas, and blended shadows and reds better.

Cut and laying on my mat, ready to be attached to the background.

Arranging the heart over the background, trying to find the best placement for it.

Final.

The frame that I purchased originally came with brackets that you wrapped hanging wire around to mount to the wall. The brackets overlapped the background image and were really distracting (you can see them in the image above this one). I removed them and installed a sawtooth bracket and it's much better. Lesson learned.

I'd like to thank my client, who ordered this out of love for her dear friends and gave me the opportunity to share my work with other creative souls and to share the process with my readers, fans and loved ones. I really can't wait to share more with the world!