Shadow Shrine

This is the project I'm doing for Eyes Open Now this month.  The idea is to work with our shadows which could be a hindrance, something you don't like about yourself, or something you don't like about your life.  By representing and exploring this shadow through art, maybe we can shed some light on it or at least have a different relationship to it.

I'm not sure this is finished yet, but I am certainly liking how it turned out.  I wanted to work with fear because I was feeling fear pretty intensely with the start of this business.

First step was to get some color on the box (purchased from Michaels).  I used Golden fluid acrylics.  I wanted to try a glazing technique that I learned in Collage Discovery Workshop by Claudine Hellmuth so I painted the back a light orange color.  Once that dried, I painted a darker color over top and then wiped off the excess.  I painted the edges blue.

Once this dried, I got to work by gluing images on with matte medium.  Some of these items were from commercial rubber stamps. The woman holding her knees is an image that I handcarved. I used some washi tape on the edges of the box and painted the outside with black gesso.