creative impasse

I've been living with the glass bellies that were made for my Rosmerta (Rose) project for a couple weeks now. I'm at more of a standstill now than I was when I first got them, which is discouraging.

I saw the first belly in December. The glass blower (Joe) and I agreed that it wasn't right; the lip needed to be at more of a 90 degree angle and the roundness of the belly needed to be larger. So that was what I was expecting when I picked up the new one. The lip was at an almost 90 degree angle which we agreed upon, but the whole thing was what seemed half the size of the first one. I could feel all the blood drain from my face.

2nd belly on left

I had decided to turn this project into a collaboration and couldn't turn back because of a difference in vision, because that's a part of the collaborative process. So I took the bellies and Rose's torso home and decided to sleep on it. I was very quiet and zoned out for the rest of the week, processing the change and calculating how to move forward.

I decided I would use the second belly, primarily because my mind was so initially set against the first one. I did some research on sculpting compounds. I would build out the belly and place the glass piece into that.

I had friend over who is due at the end of August. I knew she would know MUCH better than I what a pregnant belly should look like and how I should go about placing it. It was seeing her belly that made me realize the the first belly is actually more conducive to what I want to portray.

As you may be able to see though...the lip of the glass is larger that Rose's body.

Here we are, two weeks later and what I'm thinking now is to use the initial belly but I have to learn about how to cut glass. I'm thinking if I'm able to cut it I may be able to get it to fit better, but I have no knowledge of glass and/or if such a thing is possible. If it is, then I will then use the same concept of building out the belly and sculpting the belly onto Rose; which I would have never thought of if the second belly hadn't been made.

Marie

It's been almost a month since I painted last, but not quite. I've been unmotivated for some reason. It may be that thoughts of Rose have been on the front of my mind. More about that later. This is about Marie. Marie's features are much different than my other friends. Her nose is narrow. Her eyes are sky blue. There are two things I think of when I picture her in my mind, her smile and her decolletage. I need to spend more time staring at her to be able to get her smile translated to canvas, but this is an attempt at her decolletage...

 The canvas for this piece sat naked on my wall for a couple weeks as my attention shifted to another project. Daily I had intentions of visiting this canvas, but I just stared at it until I walked away. Then last night I woke up in the middle of the night and went to it. Now I'm thinking, I should get up in the middle of the night and paint more often. It's almost as if the fog of slumber turned off something, some editing filter. The dramatic curved line on her cheek; I don't think I would have accepted that if I had done in the light of day, but I looked at it this morning, and I'm looking at it now, and I'm so glad it's there.