CAH301: Process

After a day cruising the Op Shops of the Sunny Coast I managed to find the five largest frames I could and pick up a few bargains. Some of the frames were real professional jobs, nicely taped with corflute backing and non-reflective glass. After breaking the glass of one attempting to take it apart to paint it, I decided to leave them intact, paint them as is and leave the taking apart to the professionals. I rang around a few places and got some quotes and timeframes and got to work. Painting the frames was a mammoth task but it felt right to put the energy in. The frames are all different sizes with different shapes and edges and I wanted a sense of continuity in painting them all the same colour. I did a series of 20 experiments on the paper using a variety of methods to figure out the exact techniques I wanted to use (sealant first then pastel? Pastel first then sealant? 2H lead pencil or 2B graphite? Vertical or horizontal lines? White masking tape or low-adhesive green masking tape? Ooops! That tape took off too much edge). I had on my wall my ten favourite compositions that I looked at daily and wondered how on earth I could get them down to five. In the end, the decision came down to how they looked together and spoke to each other. Although they're large pieces and probably won't ever be seen on the same wall (not in my house anyway), the story the squares and rectangles told appealed as a series even though there were other compositions I loved as stand alone images. The next step was to figure out what composition would fit in what frame and much back and forthing occurred. There were many fails along the way (remember: measure twice and cut once, Mira and OMG THE PAPER'S BUCKLING and crap! I have to start all over again!!) but I took lots of deep breaths, listened to Nick Cave's "Ghosteen" on repeat for several days and kept going.