Artist Process: Tiny Houses
When I sat down to create the tin house collection. I had ever intention of putting together a cute village of Christmas Houses for the upcoming holiday season. If you’ve read anything about my process before, you might know that this is NOT how my process usually works. Typically speaking, I sit down with no expectations, and I’ll even change how big my paper or canvas is sometimes as I go. Every single piece comes together unexpectedly, and when it’s finished, tells its own story.
It was no surprise that sitting down with a specific idea in mind was a challenge, and as usual—completely changed by the time I was finished. As I was flipping through magazines looking for evergreen trees, fresh snowy mountains, holiday lights and deer antlers I kept getting drawn to butterflies, flowers, and seashells. Once I found these gorgeous floral bee houses, I knew it was time to listen to where my creativity was taking me, and I had the basis to start building the tiny houses.
Once I pulled the bee nests and cut them out with my scalpel, I was able to pull inspiration and colors for the rest of the tiny homes. Gorgeous rose pinks and happy yellows, pretty flying things and elements that make this world of our home all found their way from the pages of magazines and garden books and onto tiny wooden houses.
Just as when I work with 2D pieces, each image moves and and morphs around the page. Not until I am certain that every petal, feather and honeycomb is in the right spot do I adhere it with gloss medium. Then, finally, I use my trusty scalpel to cut the edges to align with the edge of the tiny houses.
I’m so pleased with how they turned out! They are whimsical, colorful homes, and have a window to another world.
