Pressed Flowers

OK, I have now attended my first flower-pressing group - or actually it is a crafts group that makes greeting cards (two-dimensional art work) using pressed flowers. (Everyone gathers and presses their own flowers at home, and then brings them to the group meeting.)

Originally I had thought that such a crafts-person would simply place one pressed flower, complete with its foliage, in the center of the blank card, and then do the final touches by affixing it to the card with the provided clear contact paper. "Voila."

But no, these artisans often separate the petals and then press them, so that many more varieties of artwork are possible: many more slants on composition, color combination, and contrast are presented, as was evident to me today by their cards. They also press varieties of foliage from weeds, shrubs, flowers, bouquets in-a-vase, ferns, leaves, etc.

They even gave me a huge gazania flower-head from which to remove the petals and press in my very own telephone book at home, plus a likewise dissected chrysanthemum ! Here goes!

Primitive Interior

We're going to go on a little tourist attraction today: about 20 minutes from where I live in southeastern Arizona there is a large Spanish Mission from the 1600's, San Xavier Mission which, you guessed it, is chock full of ancient paintings done on the interior walls, throughout.

Its location is just south of Tucson on Interstate 19, off the road about a half-mile: you can easily see its inspiring spires from the Freeway.

From the outside San Xavier architecturally resembles any other gorgeous Spanish Mission (and very well kept up), all in white, with the arches and the domes, and the steeples, and the palm trees and cactuses, but it's the interior walls that present today's 2-dimensional subject.

All this artwork is like decoration, in the sense that all the painted lines run into each other, and all pictures, and designs, and borders are juxtaposed, one thing right next to another, from the interior top of the domes and steeples, down to the floor, and also on the walls from side to side. (It is a huge photo-op!) It actually reminds me of being inside a wedding cake, with all the cake decorations somehow projected onto the retinas of my eyes.....

This is about a little quail with checkerboard wings who is wearing red high-top sneakers.

Actually it is my rendition of plagiarized art from two different magazine pictures......and yes, it is 2-dimensional: a 2-dimensional quail in two-dimensional high-top sneakers.....

(Oh, the fun you can have applying art to a square ceramic tile!)

This tile was rendered by myself, with colored glazes, and then placed in an "06" cone kiln, to be fired to perfection.

For my next 6-inch tile I am going to apply three borders in a row, as is often done on a woven Indian rug (Native American). These borders will stretch right across the middle of the tile instead of being found only at the edges of the square. Thus one can think in only two dimensions, and turn out a nice little piece of glazed art!

MURALS

Most artwork, with the exception of sculpture, is two dimensional, let's face it. We're not talking crafts, now, (though crafts is another of my big loves). Let's talk murals.

Murals are, for the most part, huge, and hugely two-dimensional. They can be indoors or outdoors. They can be painted on with a brush or with spray paint. They can have subjects that are realistic, or decorative, or abstract. Some murals are historic in theme, some seem to be dream-like fantasies (Maxfield Parrish), some are incredible in size and stature (Michaelangelo). They can be advertisements. They can incorporate lettering or calligraphy, or they can consist entirely of such lettering.

If it is an outdoor mural, the artist would want to use non-fading outdoor paint. If it is an indoor mural the artist might want to use non-smelly types of paint!

But in any case only paint is used; no glue-ons, no paste-ons, and nothing that will not last. A mural is meant to "last forever," no matter to what kind of lighting or weather (or kids!) it is exposed.