Pushing Past the Comfort Zone

Sometimes while looking at an old piece of my work I experience a moment of "what if?". Typically during this time my mind wanders to a place other than where I think I should be focused at that given moment in time. Most times the current piece of work is set aside so that the birthing of a new idea can take place. Usually this birthing requires me to "push past my comfort zone" to create something that has been swirling around in my mind sub-consciously. A lot of times the urge to "push past" is accompanied by some fear of messing up what my physical eyes see as a fine piece of work. The "pushing past the comfort zone" I do believe is my spirit yelling out "don't become boring for the sake of safety, dare to be new."

With that being said I'm now "pushing past my comfort zone" into an area that I've desired to go for some time and that's fabric and embellishment. Above is one of my mini mask which originated from a piece done a couple of years ago titled, "The Voyage". The image was scanned, elongated a bit and printed to canvas. Hmmm, what else can you do says Spirit? Well, I immediately thought the mask would look great on a piece of craft felt(can never have too much color). So on to the felt the mask went, but again Spirit spoke and said that's safe and boring. So the mask asked for a few stitches and a shirt. By now the piece has titled itself and asked to be accompanied by the rest of his family members. So the creation of the "Urban Warriors" was born. This series pays tribute to some important unsung heroes...so stay tuned.

1)First image is safe and boring.


2) Responding (on right)to the urge for stitching and embellishment which includes various beads including seed.





3) Now the third image(below) is my response to Spirit when urged to try a digital enhancement which resulted in the woodcut image.


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