Grown in Idaho

 This piece was started with covering an existing thick layer of paint on the 5" x 7" board with joint compound. Joint compound seems to me to react very similarly to plaster when dry and is easier to use as it comes pre-mixed. While it was wet I cut and pressed a potato sack and label to it. When it was dry I painted and carved a potato into it. It sat around for awhile like this until I could figure out what to add.

I had some old toy wagon wheels. The one on the left shows what they looked like, the one on the right was painted with black gesso and then the brown acrylic.

I really wanted a sack of miniature potatoes but could not find one. I did find this potato shaped rock in my stash and the same week I found the miniature hat and rope and bandana at a reuse store. Perfect! This piece fits inside a shadow box with glass and measures 5" x 7"

We Can Go to An Island By Boat...

This piece started with another pre used canvas. This one had rhinestone and wax all over it, so I decided to use the back. I scraped the sides with an exacto knife and then painted them with black gesso.

Next step was coating the back were the canvas overlapped the wood with joint compound.

 I added tissue paper to line the inside, and then used a sharpie to write the words:

We can go to an island by boat... What time should we meet? 

This piece was based on the summer of '84 and my 2 month long adventure of a lifetime in Greece and Europe. This particular piece and the wording on it has to do with flying into Athens from England where I was supposed to take a boat to go meet my friend Marianne in Corfu. I was traveling by myself. And I don't read or speak Greek. Well all those careful plans went awry when I found out there was no boat, instead I could take a bus which would get me in in the middle of the night the night before Marianne was to arrive.  I didn't want to pay for a hotel room for just a few hours so as a naive 24 year old I decided I would just sleep on a park bench and walk to the airport the next day to find my friend. Lucky for me no one bothered me and I got to clean up in the park bathroom like a homeless person. This was in the days before cell phones and we couldn't  find each other at the airport. She was just about to go check at the tourist police when we found each other in the women's restroom. 

I painted and collaged on top of the joint compound and then added 3D foam dots to a watercolor painting I painted of boats in the harbor.

 I added dots of paint around the edges.

The finishing touches were adding some of my souvenirs from 29 years ago. They include a miniature hand-painted Greek vase,  a cork from a bottle of wine with Greek writing and a miniature Greek house.