Memorial Day Weekend is dedicated to working the sailor valentine, as well as working the vineyard. i purchased a sturdy tool box from home depot, loaded it with my shells, grabbed photos, ger packed us up and away we went. this morning i worked hard on the background—i'm using a mix of purple coquina and baby blue mussels. small stars are represented by pearl umboniums.
i have to say, i'm fighting myself here. i see the exuberance in van gogh's brush strokes, and i see differences in stroke sizes and direction. when i was working on my comet tail, i had seen the geometry of the shells, the shapes and the colour all coming together in a very clean way. determined to add some exuberance into the starry background, i mixed the purple coquina and the blue mussels in a semi-random way, sometimes working with the geometry, sometimes not. after looking at the results—now very permanently glued to the board—i worry what i intentionally made random may now just look like poor design!
i have been thinking of interesting flourishes, though. i have dentalium comet sparks coming out of the astraea calcar comet heads. i think that part is successful. i'm going to keep plugging away at the design, but i'm thinking i will need to be very structured and geometric in all the other areas, if this random exuberance is going to come off well.
i am taking photos along the way, but it seems i've left the transfer cord at home!
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