Kiki Halbert Designs

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Super Saturday Stretch Inspriation

I have been working on an altered canvas project for my husband's grandma. I want it to be "just right" and have it mean as much to her as it has to me while making it. It is difficult to spend hours, days or months on something and wonder if on Christmas Day she will love it or wonder why I didn't just go buy something. I am pretty sure she will at least like it. Do you ever worry that your handmade items won't be well received?

It's that age old problem that our brains have. We can not know what someone else is truly thinking or feeling. We don't know if they were hoping for something knitted instead of art or maybe they needed something in particular but the news never got to you.

(altered canvas pre-photos and embellishments)

I have put a lot of work into this canvas. From the hours of mixing paint, painting, drying, painting more, inking, cutting out paper, finding just the right antique buttons and flowers to making sure the photos to be used on the canvas were good....not to mention the stress of finding the right frame. Even now it sits on my workbench taunting me, telling me it is missing something, but I am not sure what. A quote? A word? I am still not sure. I sit here doubting myself and wondering if it is "good enough" for the Matriarch of my husband's family. This woman is amazing. Will she know all the love I put into this work with each stroke of the brush? Will she know how long it took to get the flowers glued in position or the beeswax melted with mica powders over certain papers...will she feel the love? That is what I hope she sees when she looks at this work of art hanging on her wall. Love from a family that doesn't live that close anymore, but thinks of her often and misses her. I can only hope that this gift from my hands and heart will touch hers and show her how much we really do care.






Sometimes we have to just believe in ourselves, believe in our craft and know that the power of love shines through even if the people on the receiving end don't know how to show it.

Merry Christmas!
Amberlee

1 comments:

Sonia Valdez said...

That is a wonderful project! I love the colors.

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