A few weeks back I hung the mask on this wall rather than the one I have been hanging it on in the studio. It was then I saw the Masks sources of inspiration, where else but on my meager inspiration wall. The clown is an image I have held dear since grad school back at EMU in the mid 80's. I did countless portraits of myself as this clown. He is also Wattues Prerrot, another life long theme/subject for me. I see the color inspiration in the flower face cut out and the transparent quality for the tracing paper. I had no clue till I hung the mask up that there was a reason he felt so familiar. I added more color as you can see in the finished mask below, hanging over the Monkey Bowl.
Here is a detail from a small monkey painting. I first painted it in Milk Paint, let it crackle, then used encaustic wax to bring it all together, it is pretty cool. It has a lot of transparency you can't see here, that is extra cool!
The reaching up Monkey is slowing coming to life and he has 3 friends. The gourd monkeys each have a set of removable Micky Mouse ears.
I actually have a few more new Monkeys, but I have been so absorbed with my sweet Bella I haven't caught up on all the art documentation.
It never seems so relevant: Onward Monkeys!
I say it to Bella, I say it to myself, I say it to you, keep your head up and keep moving forward!
Onward Monkeys!
