While I was in Montana last fall, I took a half day workshop that taught participants how to use a Gelli plate. I was pleasantly surprised at just how super simple this technique really was and ordered a 9" x 12" one for myself. I've used it twice. The first time, I just played around. The painting I made were laminated and cut into bookmarks that were sent as Christmas surcee to a few special friends. The second time, however, had an intention!
I wanted to see whether or not I could create a tidal wave resist using a stencil that I cut out from a piece of release paper (the cover sheet to my Pellon Wonder Under ... a sleek, non-stick thing). Well ... sure enough, it worked. I must have printed thirty or thirty-five different tidal waves on random pieces of sheet music and cardstock. From them, I selected fourteen to progress.
The fourteen were fused to a heavy watercolor paper. Buttons were stitched as an outline. Five-point stars filled the background. Holes were stabbed through the center of each star in facilitate a thin beading needle ... and beads were added. The crest of each one was also treated with Golden's glass bead gel mixed with a dab of acrylic paint to mimic rushing foam of a real wave. Finally, individual letter clipped from vintage ephemera and modern magazines were collaged to read: Love is a Tidal Wave.
I'm not sure how I came up with the line "Love is a Tidal Wave" but while watching the Olympics, I couldn't help but to notice the many '80s melodies used by ice skaters. Television commercials use plenty of '80s songs too. Finally, I realized that my mind was almost channeling Pat Benetar's 1983 Love is a Battlefield. For all I knew, her lyrics were about tidal waves instead of battlefields. Steve laughed and laughed when I told him about this strange "almost" connection. As a result, I've signed each one below the image on the right but on the left ... in pencil ... I wrote "With apologies to Pat Benetar! We bought 100 feet of a cool moulding but it only was enough for the first twelve, standard 20" x 16" frames. The last two are simply in clear cellophane bags. In case anyone is interested, the framed ones are priced at $275. The last unframed two are just $195 each.
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