when metal smith meets paintbrush ArtPrize 2011

ArtPrize. It begins. Tomorrow.

I know we have spoken about my ArtPrize entry. We talked about my struggles as an artist. About accepting myself for who I am. We've talked paint and canvas.

And now the time has arrived. The painting is hung. There is no turning back.

I thought I was nervous before. That was miniscule compared to what I feel now! People will look at it. They will form opinions. Those opinions might not be nice. Ugh!

But I can't dwell on that. I can't live in THAT place. Therefore, to squelch the fear, and embrace the project, I thought I would share a little behind the scenes photos of what went into this piece. Besides the blood, sweat and tears of course!

Tomorrow I will be present at my venue, working in my mobile studio. I will try and take some video for you so you can share the experience. I'd love for you all to stop by and see me, but if this is as far as you get, leave a comment and let me know you were here :)
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After the initial painting was done, I knew I wanted to attach metal...I'm a metal smith after all...duh! Each individual square needed to be cut from the copper sheet. Two sizes. Perfectly matched.

Then each square had to have the edges rounded. I wanted them to be soft and fluid in appearance.

Ready for doming. Again, each square individually shaped into the perfect mini dome. It looks easy and fun. It is...the first time. Then that 2 pound brass mallet gets heavy, the edges don't want to cooperate {grumble} but eventually success!

Now the fun part...FIRE! Again, this gets tricky. Too much heat and they just turn icky colored. Too little heat and there is no pretty fire pattern. It's a dance. Probably one of the few dances I can actually do. However, it is a solo dance. Maybe I'm meant to dance alone? And I digress....

Once they cooled I took them to the painting and played with placement. Then it occurred to me that I had to adhere them. How DOES one make metal stick to canvas? I had two discoveries...both which worked really well. Success! 

And viola! They stuck!

So I present to you...The Unexpected Addiction by Lisa J Lehmann.

If you are registered to vote with ArtPrize my thumbs up voting number is  47171. But really, I'd just love to know what you think. Be gentle. K?



And thank you for allowing ME to...


BE creative...


xoxo,
lisa