Megan Caldwell Chandler

So now my blog is started, and I suppose it’s time to share what I’ve been working on recently.  I’m the type of person who tends to work on ten different projects at once.  I also can’t seem to focus on one particular medium.  I’m trying to decide if this is a bad habit or a good habit.  I suppose we shall see. 

For the past month, I’ve been trying to focus on my mixed media collages.  I’ve had one failure, one success, and one neutral attempt. 

(On a side note, I would like to point out that I am aware of the poor quality of my photographs on this page.  I knew photographing art would be one of my challenges in this new career, and I’m having a hell of a time figuring out what works and what doesn’t work.  I could lament further, but that is for a future post.)

This work has given me a headache since the beginning of August.  My idea for this piece stemmed from a simple medical diagram.  (I can’t remember what the diagram was about, but it had two naked ladies facing each other, and who doesn’t like that?)  I really liked this piece at the onset, but with every new element I began to despise it more and more.  I went to bed thinking about it.  I woke up thinking about it.  I finally just gave up and called it finished.  Needless to say, this was my failed attempt.

This piece I consider neutral.  I don’t hate it.  I don’t love it.  Although I’ve already signed and dated this work, I don’t quite consider it finished.  I feel like this piece is in Jim Henson’s Labyrinth and is facing the two doors.  One door leads to the castle; the other leads to certain death.  I could potentially improve this piece and do a happy dance, or ruin it completely and then drink myself into oblivion.  I’ll keep you posted.

I just finished this piece, and I am mostly pleased.  I was so down about my failed collage, and I was trying to figure out what was lacking with the other two when I had an important realization:  they both had a complete and total lack of humor.  Once that notion was grasped by my (sometimes) tiny brain, the rest of my piece became intuitive.  I think this piece is successful, and I’m considering submitting it to a local museum’s yearly exhibition.  It will be interesting to see if the juror of the show appreciates my humor as much as I do. 

My plan for the upcoming week is to use Bovine… as a jumping off point for my next collage.  Hopefully I can dig up enough mental fodder to complete an entire series of mixed media pieces before my brain switches gears on me.