Rooted

I do have a project I'm excited/scared about - last Spring I attended a luncheon with an artist friend.  She's active in a book arts group, and it is something I find really interesting.  I love the technical part, the bookbinding and all that, but I find content really intimidating.  I don't think of myself as an artist!  But part of the luncheon was a challenge to decorate our (papier mache) lunchboxes, which will subsequently auctioned off for charity.  I still had the box and received an email about 2 months ago asking if I would commit to making a piece for the auction.  It took a little mental push, but I committed.  Figured I would never really try if I didn't have a deadline.  So the boxes are due February 22nd.  And I decided I had to start working on it so I wasn't rushing at the last minute.  Because, of course, I can't just slap something together, I want it to be GOOD, too.  (what's that about pride goeth before a fall?)

So the overall theme is "Tend Your Garden" and the inspiration came from a grassroot art organization in Africa that the group had watched a documentary on at a previous meeting.  And that's all the guidance we have.  I've chosen a theme/title - "Rooted".  I'm going to somehow use text to explore the concept of grassroots organizations, and how they are "rooted" in our values (compassion, love, faith, etc.)  There will be grass and flowers on top, and roots coming through the lid, and I'm altering an old gardening book to base the text in.

So far all I've actually done (as opposed to thought about) is cut up the gardening book, removing most of the pages.  I've experimented a little with different glues to adhere remaining pages together, though not in the book itself yet.  I've played with a few different ideas for the roots.  It's not made a lot of progress yet, and I'm a little scared of actually doing anything to the box - that's the no-turning-back point.  But I will try to take some pictures and show the progress.  Wish me luck!