Finally finished a work in progress

You may remember me posting this piece a few days ago as a work in progress. I finished it today and it took about 9 hours - that is how very slow I am! Holy moly.



Double Vision in Comfortable Shoes
(you can click on it for more detail - I even polished their nails! Please do not copy or download)


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 2.8.09
8 x 10 collage using numerous vintage images, reprinted, carefully trimmed, and many hand-colored or tinted, all arranged with original trims on a watercolored background. Images: comfortable shoes from Suzan Buckner's freebies, other shoes from Dover clipart, tv screen made by me in Microsoft Publisher, legs and necks drawn by me, head gear made from numerous images from the public domain or image sharing groups as is some of the top and lower border and the glasses, arms from an old clipart page, dress and faces from paperstreet.etsy.com, and main wings used with a license agreement with Butterfly Utopia.

Symbolism for this piece, if you care to read. It is a very personal piece for me.

• Mainly, this piece has to do with me searching for and defining my ideas about art in general, and then specifically how my art fits into the world. It is about my personal struggle with my artistic abilities and the frustration of not being able to execute what I see in my head.
• The two heads and their glasses represent 1) my abilities and seeing them realistically with a lot of self criticism and 2) seeing and appreciating other art in the world without that self criticism.
• The tv screen implies that I am not finished investigating or committing to my present theories and maybe never will be. It is a fluid ever changing thought process.
  
• The shoes . . . The big shoes in their hands represent the big art shoes that are too big for me and too hard to fill. The smaller shoes on their feet symbolize a comfort in my own quirky style and in my little place in the world. They have slightly yellow arms representing my fear of letting go of those shoes and just doing my own thing without a second thought.
  
• The vertical words next to the figure are from a french shoe polish can . . . meaning I will always be polishing those big art shoes and my own comfy sneakers, tweaking my little niche.
• The rulers have to do with measuring up, sizing things up.
  

I am still working on an art-icle about these ideas and a recent experience with them. I'll try to finish it and post later tonight or tomorrow.