An ABORTIVE ATTEMPT and an ABANDONMENT... all in one!

Yesterday at Backstreet Arts, Newnan ArtRes artist-in-residence Lavinia Roberts gave us a workshop in making collage faces. We dragged out all the scrapbooking paper that has been donated and got to work.

My attention was divided between my usual Backstreet Writers duties and Lavinia’s workshop, but I finally got over to the table to begin. My concept was to make a Green Man face, so I scoped out all the green/flora papers and snagged what I thought I might need.

I didn’t have a lot of time, but here’s my ABORTIVE ATTEMPT:

This was my “dry stage,” i.e., before I glued anything down. I was semi-satisfied with it.

I will say that when I glued everything down, I should have referred to this photograph, because the next stage was not quite as satisfying:

My dry stage version is more knowing, more smug. Oh well.

The background I selected is an old ledger page, reminiscent of Agnes Martin’s work, the concept being that the world of data/facts/figures is no match for the organic forces of the Green Man. Hence the title.

Well, OK.

It is really crappy. So now I have some choices: do I futz with it (SUCCESSIVE APPROXIMATION), working more texture/leaves/vines into it, or just trash it? I’m not averse to ABANDONMENT at all, especially for nonce-work like this.

Best guess: it will sit on my art table for a month or so, and then I will toss it. Sic transit ars vivendi.

---

Lavinia Roberts is so much more than this one workshop: she’s a playwright, puppeteer, teacher, and more. I’d love to see her response to William Blake’s Inn as a project. Who’s in charge of making connections for Newnan ArtRes’s artists before they get here?