Thursday, March 14, 2013

Keri Smith is Trying to Get Me Evicted :)

I bet THAT title got you! I thought it might.

The other day I went to Barnes and Noble and discovered Keri Smith's book "Mess", and after flipping through some of the pages, I decided I just had to try it.

There are a lot of very interesting experiments to do within this book, and tonight I decided to try the first one I chose. Keep in mind, while I attempt to do this book, I am also going to attempt to retain the pages I complete, so I can look back at them. I am intrigued by the methodology (or perhaps, lack thereof) of the book, but I do want to be able to look back and see what I've done. That being said, I taped over the instructions on the page so they would still be legible, and then applied a decent layer of gesso on each page. Then, I followed the instructions... to drop something onto the pages from a height of at least 5 feet. So I put the book on the bottom of my bath tub and stood up on the ledge, and dropped/spilled a small cup of Antiquing Ink onto it. Then I dropped/spilled some lavender poster paint. And then, to top it off, for interesting contrast, I spilled bleach. And then I looked at my tub... needless to say, the "mess" didn't remain on the pages of the book!

After panicking that I was going to get kicked out for completely defacing our bath tub (I'm joking about the fear of getting kicked out, NOT about defacing the bath tub...), I removed the book from the tub and cleaned it all out, scrub sponge and all. Thankfully, it all came off! And my first experience with Keri's book turned out pretty neat looking :)

I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with this book! I just have to be careful not to get evicted ;)

7 comments:

The REAL EverSewSweet said...

Very dramatic title, Jen! Be careful - don't destroy your apartment!

sammysgrammy said...

Isn't is amazing how we gravitate to just the right books at B&N?

Aloquin said...

Ohhhh, I have automatic radar! I don't look at anything else there :)

Niki Jackson said...

That does look like a lot of fun Jen and your page looks amazing. xx

MYSAVIOR said...

I LOVE that you have the courage to try these new 'things' for your art.
I am thinking that Jackson Pollack got started that way.

♥♥♥
Sue

Pam of alwaysartistic said...

Very cool. What a cool idea to do them in the book too!

Csilla Toth said...

Great book! Thank you for introducing it! I've added it to my wishlist on bookdepository.