More Hearts, More Words ...

I thought I'd post another of the hearts I monoprinted at the Richmond Art Gallery a few weeks ago. This one was based on the same basic drawing as the previous one, but I wanted it to look very different ... well, as different as one could expect being exactly the same size and shape and colour palette. The amount of watercolour paint I used for this one was so dense that I was actually able to make three increasingly faint prints from a single base painting.

I always had in mind that I would add text, although I wasn't quite sure what text and how I would add it. In the end I chose the very simple method of writing a poem in white ink over the whole piece. Yes, I know that some of the text disappears and is therefore unreadable, but I like it all the same. I created the monoprinted hearts for a project initiated by Melissa McCobb Hubbell, and she set not only the size and the theme but also the colour scheme ~ reds, pinks, browns, white, ivory, etc. This heart (okay, its twin) has been trimmed to 6"x6" and is one its way to Melissa, but abiding by my always make two rule, this one remains untrimmed and I've kept for myself. I might even frame it. I think.

The poem was written for the project. One of the things I *can* do (apparently) is produce a little verse on a particular topic fairly quickly. A few quiet moments concentrating deeply on something usually gives me a satisfactory result. My mother-in-law claims that I can do this because I am Welsh, and the Welsh are (according to her) able to knock out an ode without any undue effort. For many years now I've been trying to tell her that I'm no more Welsh than the next person, but she insists I am, based on my last name (19th most common last name in Wales). By this logic, my partner (her son) would be Canadian based solely on the fact that his last name is the 10th most common in Canada, although he's actually English (as were his parents, etc etc ad infinitum).