HOW SMALL DO WE GO?

This journey into creating fine art, mosaic style pieces has been a wonderful path to keeping my mind and creative spirit lit. I first started out creating large pieces, four feet square because I was looking for an impact with the large image and as you moved closer, discovering the many little images that were interwoven into the piece. As I learned to refine my techniques and style, I began to work smaller. Sometimes realizing not everyone would have a large wall or a sizable budget for such pieces. It also forced me to think more about my compositions and where to place images or color and then adding the oil stick accents. I moved down from two foot square panels to twelve and then tried ten inch square panels. After doing a small, local first Friday event where you have many people just getting out and enjoying the evening, not really thinking they would buy art, I started thinking about an approachable, affordable piece of art. Something you would not mind spending $30-$40 on, something you could put in your purse and take home to set on a shelf or hang in a small nook. From my wood scrap pile (who throws away wood?), I pulled out some 2x6 pieces, shaved off the outer rounded sides and made a perfect 5 inch square block that would be sanded, painted and from there, I could experiment with "art blocks". These would be something I could use scrap prints from larger compositions, solid color paint chips ar reduce a larger image to be a simple accent on a small block. So now I have something I like to think of as Art Bites... small, affordable bite sized pieces of art that might be a gateway for people to purchase real art from real artists and establish a report with the art community to encourage them into a world of collecting art. So now my journey has taken me to what I now believe is my smallest works. I'm not looking to create trinkets, but to use them to help people understand the joy of buying and sharing art. I also have been sharing this idea with a few other folks to perhaps join forces and use some of their art to create a small line of Art Bites that may have some accent photography, metal art and so on. Regardless of where this goes, it has been a fun, enlightening journey. It keeps me in the art game, gives me a connection to potential art collectors, other artists and some arts shop owners.