This is Rachel. This piece has been sitting on my desk for months. My inner self was at war, try for the simple, understated minimalist look, or add, add, add - my usual style. In the end I let my muse have it's way and my head and my heart met in the middle. The skirt with its variety of circles within circles mirrors life and talks of all that is hidden under clothing. The simple torso (an old pair of pliers forms the heart shaped body) and brings the eye to the spark plug - which has the word champion showing through the rust. People are wonderful; women are heroes; so few realise it.Some of the washers were built up with wonderful layers of rust, others were worn to paper thin layers and then there were the new. Thank you to Michael deMeng for teaching me to make paint layers look like rust (in the wonderful class I took in March). I left one segment open at the back of Rachel's skirt just so I could slide a small candle in should I wish.
The name you ask? She needed a name, and as I glued and painted and layered I thought of the women of Avonlea, of Anne of Green Gables, and the way the shoulders sit had me thinking about the character Rachel ...
It is a blissful to be in the middle of a sunny winter's weekend, enjoy yours -wherever you are.
