Integrating and Unifying

At the End of the Road
6x6"

This was total play!  I did not start out with an idea of what I wanted at the end.  The only preconceived element was that I would create some texture in plaster with a cotton doily I have.  As with much of my work, it is mixed media...very mixed media!  In the layers of the collage there are found papers, part of a photocopy of one of my artworks, plaster, shellac, watercolor and acrylic paint.  I worked back and forth between all of these elements, sometimes sanding the layers with my mouse sander.  I applied the shellac and used the sander the way one might apply paint or erase out charcoal or graphite.

Because plaster and shellac take time to dry between layers, I find that I can multi-task, working on several pieces at one time.  What happens in one piece often becomes something I incorporate into some of the other pieces depending on what else is going on in them.  I like that when I look at the finished works I often can't tell the order of my process.
For me this is the definition of truly integrating all of the elements into a unified whole.