Making Blocks O'Love

I love the LOVE holiday! Smack dab in the middle of winter, I  need a little splash of color and love to get me through to spring. So around this time every year, I change my color palette to magentas, purples, pinks and reds.  Last year I made batik paper Valentines, this time I had more of an object in mind, but couldn't find exactly the right support, so went to the lumberyard and bought the biggest chunks of wood I could find. I came back to the studio, cut them up, gave em a good sanding

  

 and coated with several layers of gesso.  Next -color palette!  I never allocate enough time for this, or realize how much time it takes because it's fun to pick colors!  but it takes time to make the colors in front of you matched the colors in your head, and then to make sure that each type of sprayer, squeeze, bottle, or applicator is working correctly so I can spray, splash, pour, or drip!

I had decided to incorporate some poems and words of love into these, and figured silkscreens would be the best way.  So spent an afternoon playing with type/text on the computer,  and then with ink and japanese brushes making loose hearts to use for my silkscreen imagery.  

Finally, I got to play! i "warmed up" in my art journal first- a safe place to experiment-
  

Then jumped in!  I spent a very fun afternoon splashing, pouring, and  spraying. I made about two dozen so far, too many to go over all in here, so I'll feature a couple this week.

First layer of inks, spray paint and gesso. 

Then I "audition" which screens i want to use by laying a transparency over the painting. 

i ended up going with Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem "How do I love thee?" for the piece on the right. Once i have it where i want it- i screen it on. 

 

I decided I wanted to obscure the lower right a bit- so went back in with the burst of white. Then I cut a stencil to fill the inside of my silkscreen heart, and spray paint it on, then quickly scrubbed and sanded away to rough up the surface and make it more interesting....

then finally line up the silkscreen, and add the back contrasting heart (painted earlier with Japanese brush, then made into a silk screen) 

Finished piece! 

At this point, this one is still available but they are going fast! 

http://www.cherylholz.com/art/detail.php?artid=1130093