Which Way is Up?

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It's no secret that I like Map art so when Mixed media artist, Jill K. Berry, put out her second call to create a map of our personal vision of 2015 I joined!  This year I decided to play with the idea of a city map.  I had the idea of a round-about with my family as the center and everything else I do coming out from there.  My first sketch reminded me of a spider's web.  It wasn't what I wanted.
 After a few weeks of mental processing I decided to play with another idea putting little circles in the center for each family member and making buildings along each road. Nope, something wasn't right. More processing time needed.  I wondered if I didn't like it because I hadn't added color yet.  I then remembered some stencils I made some time ago and thought they might be perfect to make a colorful page.

I cut a couple circle masks, pulled out my square stencils, my Inktense blocks and a paintbrush and went to work.
I put the circle mask a little off center, taped the stencils down and colored each block.  Just a little bit of color in each square because the Inktense blocks are truly INKTENSE! A little goes a long way, and even then some colors are more saturated than others so be careful if you don't want an intense color. 

I took a photo of the almost completed piece and imported it into photoshop to play even more.
I really didn't know what I was doing or where I was going with this piece.  I rotated the piece around trying to figure out which way was up.  Suddenly my art brain woke up! It was almost midnight so it was about time!!!  I cropped the piece so that the circle was in the upper left hand part, added a compass rose and the words "Which Way is Up?" This idea connected to how I have been feeling lately. I started naming the streets using some of the words from my original sketches and added more from there.  I added words that have meaning for me, as well as words that I may experience this year.  There are many roads to travel and some of those roads change suddenly.  And just because I travel one road doesn't mean I can't turn a corner and change things for myself.
Which ever way 2015 turns out to be this year, I think I'm ready.
If you like map art check out Jill Berry's book Personal Geographies and join us in the Arty Cartophiles Facebook group and the Map 2015 Pinterest page.

Comments

Lynda said…
Lisa, I LOVE your map! It's so neat. I haven't gotten into the map thing, but may have to check it out. Loved how your showed your process and how it turned out.
January 22, 2015 at 3:55 PM
Thread Born said…
Lisa- Really enjoyed following your thought process in this project and the end result. Reminds me of what I do every month with The Printed Fabric Bee. I often find myself over thinking the design and the first attempts don't always pan out...then I have an "ah ha" moment and the final work flows together.
January 24, 2015 at 5:31 AM
Win Dinn, Artist said…
I loved reading and seeing this post - watching the piece evolve as the muse kicked in. Thanks SO much!
January 24, 2015 at 10:04 AM
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