Bear DNA

Here it is the second day of 2013 and I've got a finished project. I always feel proud when I finish something, but my thoughts tend to be scattered, like at the end of a long work week when I'm just glad it's over. I'm feeling a little lost because I don't know what to do next. Last night I considered several projects and I couldn't decide on any of them.

The piece was intended to be balanced- this trail of bear paws was supposed to be on both sides. I had a spacing problem- when I cut the canvas to fit the frame it gave me an odd number of holes which made centering a little more difficult. Bear paws on both sides didn't look right. The right side looked compressed and cluttered. I didn't want to rip out all this work. I settled on a chain design. The chain looked like DNA which is how I got the name, but the chain refused to be stitched. No matter how hard I tried, nothing about it looked right. I decided to be random.

I just made rows of stitches in whatever color I grabbed.

The effect is like peeling paint. At first, I tried to pick earth colors because I wanted something that looked like an air view of a forest. I thought about rivers, trees, flowers- but Mother Nature puts nothing in rows. My finished piece looks more like an old door. But that's okay because it's FINISHED.

This paw was supposed to be on point but I had the centering problem again and had to settle for close enough.

I had to add a star because who can mention bears without the Big Dipper?

I used the same color to bind the piece because we are all bound by the stars.

The finished, framed pieced on my altar by a picture of my grandfather. Tip- if you use a really nice oak frame people will think your work is high-end art even if they don't like the subject matter. Why else would it be in an expensive frame?