Finishing the Squares

A large magnifier with light is one of the essential tools I’ve acquired from my father’s studio. It’s attached to the drafting table he used for many many years. This is the same set-up I currently use in my space. It’s nice to have a piece of his history under my hands and eyes daily. The magnifier greatly aids my ability to cut out the super skinny areas on all of my paper work. The below grass composition wouldn’t have been possible without it.

The last grass design is completed and I’m feeling pretty good about it (interior cut size is 7″x 7″).  It’s still very different from the previous designs, lacking the interior complexity, but certainly making up for it with great negative space. This more closely resembles my earlier work with botanical silhouettes. I knew both grass compositions would be quite different from the previous plant  designs unless I pushed into a serious micro view. To tell you the truth, my eyes are tired and I just don’t want to spend hours working with the scope.

Do I keep the two different phases of grass development or just choose one? Anyone have preferences or suggestions, let me know (I’ll still go with my gut feeling, but it’s fun to know what others like/dislike). Below is the early seed development, above is the late seed development stage. In the final work, all squares will have uniform margins and interior size.

Now it’s time to dive back into finalizing all the previous squares and getting them ready for enlargement!

The above project is an ongoing development process for a public art work  titled From the Land. It will take residence in the city of Halsey, OR in September. The project was made possible by The Arts Center of Corvallis and their Art in Rural Communities program.