6 Players - 6 Months

We'll, Leonardo bunny has joined in a little Round Robin with six other folks. They are making a set of custom pages for each other, one a month for six months. Each player chose their theme and format and the others make them pages for their books.

Leonardo started the round with one if his favorite people, Elizabeth and her theme was Rust. Now if there is one thing we know a lot about living below the ground it is the effects of oxidation on metals.

So Leonardo was casting around and found a great little rusted tin can that was all falling apart and knew he had to include that in his art work.

Here's his description of what he created:

"I love the colors in rust and metals in general, so it was a great gift that E wanted rust pages. I started with a half sheet of Arches 300 lb cold press rough watercolor paper. I tore it down to the 8 1/2 by 11 size and painted it with acrylics. I used raw sienna, burnt umber, mars black, iridescent copper and iridescent b ronze paints to create a basic underpainting on all sheets. Arches is such a fabulous paper, 100% cotton rag mould made in France on machines which have been in production since before the US was a country. The 300 lb (640 g/m2) paper is somewhat like the thickness of multiple cereal boxes combined, but the texture is pure heaven to an artist.

On the sides where I knew I would be including the rusted metals I added a fine coat of a gold glitter acrylic polymer is some sweeping strokes.

I love the Chicago Poems by Carl Sandburg and I remembered the one about the hydrangeas, so I painted the turning hydrangeas on the front page to embrace that. The petals were painted with some tiny poly 'berry' brushes and they really came out neat. I bronzed up the leaves a bit to echo the turning of the petals.

Whenever I think about rust I think about diamonds - thanks to Joan Baez. So I made the inside two page spread for the first part of the quote from her song. Using a heavy coating of acrylic polymers I glued the rusted metal to the recto side and used the verso side for the quote. I embedded a few of the crystals on the metals page, but saved most of them for the final verso.

The song chronicles a time in her life when Bob Dylan (a former lover) called one evening from a booth in the Midwest. She originally ended the song with the phrase, "if you're offering Diamonds and Rust, I already paid." In the past few years she has changed that lyric to read, "I'll take the diamonds."

So my pages take the best of some wonderful poetry and include a simple composition, but complex media choice to bring some diamonds to a good friend I have never met.

I also included one of my signature ATC type cards which are painted on retail store gift cards and a candle shelter made from handmade batik papers.

Thanks E for inviting me to participate in the group."

Leonardo Rabbit

(click the pictures for a closer look)