an adventure

Christmas was very simple for us this year with our move from Connecticut to Florida . . .  no big celebrations; just a quiet visit with my mom & dad (well, and 4 dogs!) and my mom had a small and most delicious party on christmas eve. Presents were very minimal this year, and it was actually nice! Steven did go out and buy me a few lovely little things (he said he just had to!) and I really wanted to make him a small piece of art, shown above. It is the same size as the first piece of art I gave him in 2004 when we had just connected again, which is shown below. Wow, both pieces use the same masking tape background technique. I think this, the small size, and that they are made for him especially, is why he likes them!

Well, moving here is a huge adventure in itself, so that is part of the reason for the words on my christmas collage for Steven. Since moving to Florida, Steven has made a point of getting out every day to explore the area either by himself or with me and the dogs. He has taken the single-man canoe my dad made for him out many, many times since we've arrived, when the tide is right. Below is a photo of my dad with the "featherweight" canoe he made for Steve in 2006.

Here in Bradenton, FL we are surrounded by water. We have the Manatee River, Palma Sola Bay and Tampa Bay, plus lots of other waterways I am not even familiar with! The tide makes a huge difference on when you can paddle or even motor boat, this much I know. I would say my Steven is definitely a 'boat guy'. He grew up summers right on the St. Lawrence River in Canada with all kinds of boats: motor boats, row boats, canoes, kayaks & sailboats, and he was an avid white water paddler when he was in his 30's and 40's. Now he loves to flat water canoe.  I wanted to create something for him that reflected these adventures he has lately been embracing.

For his collage at the top, I started with one of the backgrounds I teach in my collage on canvas online workshop, a masking tape background. I laid masking tape down on a small 2.5" x 3.5" canvas and covered it with a Halo Blue Gold Lumiere paint. It is hard to tell in the photo but it has a true luminescence to it and changes colour when you shift the canvas. I chose that color for it's water-likeness and then looked for a few words and images i might have. I think the small photo in the middle is of my nephew dale, at the same family get-together as the picture of Steven & Asia above. When we lived on a small lake in Avon, CT in 2006, we had a BYOB - Bring your Own Boat (a handmade Dale Andrews boat!) party. We had 3 wee lassies (single man) canoes, 2 larger canoes, and 1 sailboat all made by my dad out on this teeny tiny lake, Secret Lake! Another photo from that day is below - my mom & dad are getting the Melonseed sailboat ready, the same boat Steven & I towed here 3 weeks ago along with 5 other boats!

In my collage for Steven, the words and the transparency image of the woman  are from ARTchix Studio.com. The words are from ARTchix's Tell me More collage sheet. There are so many great words you can add to a collage on this sheet; as usual, Helga has done an awesome job! I also added a bit of rubber stamping with permanent ink on top of my masking tape background, as I often like to do for depth. To me the stamping of the branches represents the mangrove trees here and all the canoeing through tunnels, and other new adventures that Steven has been having! merry christmas, steven!
-lenna young adnrews - december 27th, 2009