"Almost White"

It started out to be a white piece; it ended up almost white.
I’ve been trying to be creative every day following the Creative Every Day blog. One week Misty Mawn suggested working in one color a day. On one of those days the color given was white. To me that was the biggest challenge. An all white piece. Now those who know me or who have visited my online store Big Island Rose Designs know that I’m not afraid of color. Many of the treasuries I make on Etsy prove that point. But an all white piece – hmmmmmm. Going with my theme of "back to where I started from" I knew that it would be a collage. So I began the search for white items, textures, details from old magazines. After I had collected a supply I started laying them down on my canvas. Now nothing looked white-white. It wasn’t very exciting either but I continued.
First a layer of torn text covered with a little gesso to tone the text down. Then I found some white paper heart doilies in my stash. Good. Next I arranged my “white” magazine pieces until I liked it. Still not exciting though. I knew I would add some buttons somewhere on the canvas so I played with them for awhile. I had another challenge with this piece, how to finish the edges. A quilt gave me the idea to cut squares of paper and wrap them around the edges. First I was going to do all text but then I spied some old sheet music damaged in places and decided to alternate words with music. Okay that works!
Some vintage white rickrack from my stash caught my eye. I added it to kind of accent the heart shape of the doily and mimic the doily’s edging. Searching the magazines some more I found a white daisy, perfect for the center of the heart but what about that yellow center. Definitely not white. I played with my buttons some more – maybe all around the heart or along the edges of the canvas. How about a big one to cover up that yellow center? All the time I could hear my former art instructor Joan Hill, “Rose, when you think you are done, always remove at least one thing, don’t overdue it.” Okay too many buttons and I really like the yellow center of the daisy – it makes the piece pop. So take away all but a few buttons and I’m done.
Only problem now is I like this piece so much I’m not sure if I’ll sell the original. I will definitely do prints of it. It would make a lovely card don’t you think?