YOU BELONG HERE
16x20in x5
mixed media; acrylic, oil pastel, procreate (iPad), Adobe InDesign, scissors & glue, acrylic paint pen,
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participants in a workplace were asked, “what makes you unique?” and were instructed to write them on three canvases. following this, i was commissioned to create artwork on two blank canvases and the three canvases written on to tie it all together as one piece in an aesthetic way.
2/5 finished works shown (I am not going to show the full pieces including participant’s words) and a story of the process is below.
Dec. 2024; This has a value of $400 CAD.
Canvas’ 1 and 2 were blank and made to be more of an intro to the exercise / covers—so I added some of my own text as part of the visuals.
I wanted the canvases to all be bright—as diversity and inclusion should be—but also I wanted to portray a lot of texture and keep all the different layers visible.
The other three canvases were supplied with participant’s writings all over them in washable marker.
Of course, washable markers and paint? This wasn’t going to work but I knew I wanted all five canvases to have the same colour scheme and feel. After I took photos of it all and even typed them up as a backup, I sprayed it with water and let the ink run wild.
Even though you can’t tell in the finished pieces, I never completely washed off all the ink. I just let it all dry however the ink ran and I kinda wish I took a photo of that.
A few layers deep on the cover canvases and the three main canvases yet to be touched.
(did the a quick and terrible gaussian blur on the above photo to blur out some of the participant’s words)
Of course, I made a rough plan to ensure all five canvases would work together as a series:
I left the first two canvases for awhile while I worked on adding more colours to the three supplied/text canvases.
I knew I wanted the focal colours throughout to be pink and yellow—but I also knew the three canvases for sure needed more colours thrown in. So I just added bits of different colours as I went with no particular order or system at all.
The progress of the texture was shaping up:
At some point I decided to roughly frame the edges all five canvases with a pale yellow oil pastel to really tie them all together—yellow has always been a symbol of diversity and inclusion to me.
…and the aftermath (my sleeve worked as a good tool).
The next part was the fun part: Getting the words back on in the same writing style, size, and approximate location as on the original.
Here’s a brief look at the process:
I traced all of the written words (about 40 quotes) in Procreate on my iPad and then opened those drawings in Adobe Illustrator and converted them to vectors.
I made three 16x20in pages in Adobe InDesign, dropped the original photographs on those pages and placed the drawing of each quote directly overtop where it was originally.
I took those drawings of the quotes at actual size and put them on separate 8.5x11in sheets I could easily print off.
I (very roughly) cut them into their own piece and arranged on the real canvas in its approximate spot and glued them to the canvas.
Once the quotes were dry and stuck to the canvas, I took a wet sponge to rub off some of the edges of the paper (similar to an ink transfer) to add a more textured look, blending some of the paper into the canvas.
(again, I did the a quick edit to cover some of the quotes)
It was beginning to feel like a definite mixed media journey where my graphic design background was definitely useful…
Below are a couple close ups of how the three canvases turned out (the final of the first two canvases were shown at the top of this page). I wanted the paper really blending into the paint for the rough, textured feel and not be too blunt.
The final touch was adding rough, sketched flowers in acrylic paint pen across all five canvases to link them all together even more.
