Stencils, Ink, Paint, Stamps...and Whitney

I call this the one that got away (with a photo). Details below:

Started out with piece of 400# watercolor paper. Took some Cranberry Ranger Distress Ink spray and a couple of stencils, and got this, after letting it dry thoroughly and sit in my phone book stack for a few days.

Then, I got a couple of window-type sponge stamps I got in a rak years ago and used them with some MM lagoon paint.

Again, dried thoroughly. My definition of that does not include a heat gun. The few times I have used my heat gun to hurry up drying, I've gotten extreme warping that was hard to press out, so not worth it in my book. My definition is to air-dry.

Next step was to be a wash with yellow ochre acrylic ink, so since the distress ink reacts with wet media, I did let this cure a while...maybe a week. On an absorbent substrate, I really do think it makes a difference. Also, ink jet printer copies work better for me when I let them cure a few weeks before using in wet media. I think sometimes we are too impatient for the materials we use...

Anyway, you can see that the ink caused another warp (but yay, the stencil pattern stayed put in large part), so back to the air-dry and then the phonebook press for a while...

Now that the entire ink wash created a permament barrier of sorts, I did another one with white paint to soften the whole thing. Then I began to outline the stamped parts with a black inktense watercolor pencil.

I played with smudging it with a q-tip dampened in water...

And then, I cut this piece right down the middle, adhered a really cool turquoise doorway collage sheet image over the group of four squares on that piece and outlined the door carvings and frame.

Wish I could show you those photos, but on a whim, I included both pieces with a payback rak to a friend without taking pictures first. I even forgot to scan the card I included! Frankly, I blame all of the weird-ass reactions to Whitney Houston's sudden passing for my disoriented behavior. I was saddened by her accidental death, but disgusted to start hearing about how NJ Gov. Christie was under fire for ordering flags flown at half-staff for Whitney, by pro-military families, when he already does that for NJ servicemen; and when everybody started running off with wild speculations about her alleged behavior and drug use and drinking, even hearing one contention that she wanted to die.

Really??????

I truly wanted to force everyone to sit and watch 5 hours of Whitney's movies, concerts, videos, in order to remember her with some respect and empathy. I mean, my whole point in wanting that is that Whitney's sweetness and good heart and awesome talent would remind all that she was a nice person, a good person, a human being. You can see it in her eyes, her innocent open facial expression. I'm so tired of us doing this to every fricking person who dies young or unexpectedly. I mean, would they want to be remembered this way? What if some irate person hijacked your funeral because they never forgave you for some behavior in your past? Are we all perfect? Geez, I may not even have a public funeral, now that I think of where this trend could eventually go.

In my opinion, Whitney was one of only a handful of elite female voices in my lifetime who were what I call perfect singers -- pitch, tone, versatility, elasticity, power -- I put her right along with Streisand, Dion, Aguilera, Carey. And now she's gone. God took her. He had his reasons. I don't judge because that's God job, not mine.

Anyway, I have been pre-occupied enough to forget stuff like this that I do all the time. And my husband has been absent-minded as well, but not because of Whitney, he could care less, lol. Sometimes when I'm thinking up strange what-if's, I wonder what would happen to us if we both got Alzheimers at the same time. I watched Sheppard Smith's special on Glen Campbell and his Alzheimers. Very compelling. I know these two things cannot possibly be connected, but true story: in the 60's, the only records playing on my parent's turntable was Barbra or Glen (my peeps are from Arkansas, and we are loyal). And you have no idea how much I am going against my upbringing to even put Whitney on the same level with Barbra. But hey, facts is facts.
So, if I do get Alzheimers one day, I have written this memory down and can read it again. May not know that it is me I'm talking about, but ya never know... Now I'm wondering, would I like myself if I was another person to myself? {Eyeroll} This could go on forever...winkwink.