a peek behind the star

Sometimes it's fun to get the behind-the-scenes of a piece as it evolves from start to finish, which is one of the reasons I almost always take process pics while I'm working. And since part of the process for the "Bright Star of the World" design used a method called acrylic transfer to create the focal image, I thought it might be interesting share a little more about how that piece came together.

Acrylic transfer is a process where the ink/image from a book or magazine is burnished into wet acrylic paint/medium so you can rub off the paper once it's dried and the image remains embedded (transferred) in the paint. It takes patience and gentle persistence to make an acrylic transfer work, and I think the work of building peace often takes patience and gentle persistence, too. I like the symbolism of that.

As with almost all of my pieces, though, the design started with a quote written on the blank page. Even though you usually won't see much or any of those initial words, I like the idea that it's "cemented into the foundation". It's a way of setting an intention, and remembering that what makes something important or valuable to us is the unseen part, the things we know are there, and or even the things we don't.

Next came a few layers: a light paint wash, then scraps of sheet music and another paint wash. After a haphazard layer of gesso to "push" those layers back a bit, it was time for the star of the show (sorry, couldn't resist).

The star is cut from a sheet of old sheet music, which is what I wanted to transfer. In this case, I actually did a combination technique of masking and acrylic transfer, since I planned to add more layers once the star was embedded in the acrylic but before I rubbed it off for the transfer. So the star shape acted as a mask to preserve the first few layers underneath it.

Once the star was set, it was time for, you guessed it, more layers! Paint and gesso applied with the palette knife so that parts of the earlier layers would still come through the background.

Finally, the moment of truth: removing the star mask. There are mulitple ways a transfer can go wrong, so there's always a bit of apprehension when you start rubbing away the paper, hoping that the transfer took the way you intended. And big relief when you see that it did.

Lastly, the quote needed to finish the whole thing off. In this case I handstamped letter by letter on the blank margin scraps from the sheet music. A last bit of collaging to get the quote in place and voila! The 2019 Holiday Card design was ready.

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