My Blood is Thin

One of two pieces I've done on stretched linen instead of wood. Click on image to see in greater detail.

O N   L I N E N — This piece, My Blood is Thin, is a collage based on photos of an old friend of mine I took back in 2004 or so. The main image is of his two hands spelling out B-L-O-O-D. Other sampled images include the front cover of the Life issue with Martin Luther King Jr's funeral coverage, the cover of a not-very-well-known Elvis Presley song, I Feel So Bad, and various photos of me as a child, laughing on the outside, crying on the inside . . . 

Using my paint and paper and polyurethane process on stretched linen as opposed to hardwoods, worked out just as well. The feel of the piece is taut and smooth and has a waxy finish due to the multiple coats of non-yellowing water-based poly. The size is smaller than my usual pieces, 14x11 inches, but I'm more than pleased with the way it turned out. As with all of my pieces, the edges are fully finished, in fact the images wrap around, negating the need for a frame. 

I really don't care for frames at all. I feel most times they compete with the art instead of enhancing it. I've done exactly one piece WITH a frame, and in that case, the frame itself was covered with images and became the art. I used a circa 1930 wooden frame with wide flat surfaces and it's original glass covering more artwork underneath. That was also a first for me out of the approximately 110 pieces I've created in the past 5 years.