Life Force

Dimensions: 38"h x 48"w

Medium: Mixed Media Fiber Art

Status: For Sale at the Sewell Gallery

Price: $2,500

By: April Sproule, Contact for Purchase

Life Force was hand-painted on 16mm silk crepe on a wild and windy day in Mendocino, CA. As I set up my work area outdoors at the Mendocino Art Center one afternoon, I soon realized that the only way I could paint a piece this large was to stretch the fabric between two sawhorses. As the day progressed, it became incredibly windy by early afternoon. Any sort of control of my medium was pretty much impossible at that point. So I decided to let the forces of nature have their way with my gutta as the wind snatched the resist from my paint brush and flung it across my piece. Sometimes it is better to bow to the forces of nature than to fight against them.

The grid of thread was created on Solvy, a gelatin based stabilizer, which was then dissolved leaving me with this complex shape to apply to the top of the silk. I learn by doing, working myself into a corner, and having faith in my ability to always find a solution.