Tearing It Up…collage

Wabi Sabi:  (1) Imperfect  (2)  Unfinished  (3)  Impermanent

Wonderfully, Yes.

Each of those three, sum up the Tearing It Up collage in blue!

 

Collage WIP

So much patience is needed.

This collage has been an ongoing work in progress for 10 months.

That. Is a long time for me, to still be unfinished.

 

I’ve only shown you a small portion of the image in the post. The latest part I’ve worked on.

Overall, its quite a large piece.  And intricate.

Did I, perhaps bite off more than I could chew?  I’d have to say yes.  Especially, if… I’d intended to have this done in my usual time frame.  One day. Two at the most. That’s the normal way I work.

 

 

Resisting Temptations…

I’m tempted to gesso over the whole thing.

I’m tempted to quit.

I’m tempted to cut the canvas up into sections.

 

My oh my. I don’t think this will ever, be finished.  

Its certainly, Imperfect.   

And if I keep tearing it up – the impermanence part, well… that is going to be hastened along much sooner!

 

 

 

Persist.. for the Promise

But I persist. In increments.

Why?

I see the underlying ‘promise’ within the whole piece.

 

It may not, be ready yet.

I may not be ready yet.

But  there will come a time when  everything falls beautifully into place.

 

 

 

How do I know?

By experience.

I can and do, trust in myself in this.

By the feeling I get when I look at it.

 

It holds promise.  

 

 

So, its safe.

From gesso. From the scissors and knives.  From the trash bin.

 

 

 

I tell you these things, to encourage you.

To let you see, that you can too can use a similar attitude, a similar approach to thinking about art.

That even when its taking too long, or  its not ‘perfect’ and you are getting frustrated, that there are ways … to navigate around those obstacles.

 

 

 

Another…. snippet,  seen Previously.

 

 

Wabi Sabi is just a word

Its just struck me … I don’t think many readers out there like, the word Wabi Sabi.

Is it because it sounds too much like the ‘Burn Your Tongue,’  ultra hot,  “Wasabi?”

Or sounds like, Khemosabi?

 

But really,  Wabi Sabi  is just a word that explains and describes something useful to us.

That something is –  a different way of perceiving art. 

Looking at things in ways we’d not imagined them before.

That beauty…. can be discovered in a so many more forms than what we have ever, in the past,  limited our minds to.

 

Beauty can be found in an unfinished line drawing;  or the rough broken ragged torn edges of papers.

It can be in the impermanence of melting ice sculpture or the crumbling turrets of the sand castle.

 

In the very imperfections we groan about… there, we find Beauty.

 

 

 

Wabi Sabi.  IT so eloquently describes the grace and beauty of everyday life.    

And thats an amazing thing.

 

 

 

Tearing it up, ripping and shredding papers, art paintings, old poems, and books.

Layer by layer by layer.  Month after month it goes.

So slowly, we create a loved and aged work of art.

 

 

 

 

Great Partner Posts

Collage in watercolor strips of green 

Canvas Collage 

Collage Saturday 

 

Bones of Time Zen Wabi Sabi    

this is part of my 7 Days of Zen Series