Entries from the Insomniac File

"The Key"

5x7", Mixed Media Collage on paper

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"It was a dark and stormy night in February..."

In January, I had asked friends of mine in one of my artist groups to participate in a friendly Valentine swap of any kind of art they chose to create for the occasion.  In all, about 5 of us agreed to participate.  Well, as I grew closer to Valentine's Day, I still could not come up with the inspiration for the little Valentine I would make for my randomly selected valentine, my friend Jules.  I realized that I may be the last one to get my Valentine in the mail, slacker. 

I had begun to experience insomnia recently (too many cookies and espressos?) and hard as I tried, rolling over and over again in bed to the point of insanity was helping me sleep about as well as the caffeine after 8 pm! In these precious quiet moments creativity is stirring. I'm not alone lying there with my lucid dreams, imaginings, fantasies, nostalgic sentiments...smiles come easy, if only in my mind since the body hardly responds in those hours in between late night and early morning.

Finally, I got up figuring I would wear myself out with Law & Order or something on the TV. But, it was still pretty darn cold in early February and we live in a very high vaulted home that doesn't keep warm air in the living room, so after a momentary debate of how cold I might be trying to bundle up virtually with New York's detectives who handle the major case squad and their stories, I opted instead for my studio where I have a little space heater, lots of lighting and a radio.

The art supplies came out, feeling the paper give in to my tugging and tearing was pleasing to me. Glue got involved.  Writing integrated itself as it often does into my medley of artsy goodness and by 10 am I had created the beginnings of quite a few of these sweet little mixed media collages.  I felt good that I could make so much out of one sleepless night rather than lying like a mosquito on water.

These pieces have been waiting for a month for a framing solution, and I finally settled on adding a raised border to the outer edges, recessing the main image to create delightful little shadow boxes and voila, a new series is born.  "The Insomniac File"; dreamy sentimental mixed media collages. My awakenings, if you will, put on paper.   

Have a nice day, 

Rebecca

Entries from the Insomniac File