This was the first time I had entered a “mixed media” class in a competition. In fact, I believe this was the first time it had been offered in this country as a competition class, so a challenge for competitors and judges alike.
My interpretation is based on the use of mixed media in the general art world where it is defined as “a type of artwork that mixes different media or materials into one piece”. I decided that this would best be reinforced by presenting my design across a few painting canvas backgrounds.
My first type of media was paper – incorporated as part of the background by applying ripped paper serviettes, decoupage style, to the canvas backing in a random pattern. The remainder of the design was based on the lemon pattern of the serviettes as this gave me the opportunity to use the fruit, flowers, foliage and branches as part of the plant material for the design.
To give the design height and dimension I have used some metal rings covered with wool and dipped in a wholemeal flour paste with spiral pasta glued to the wool drops from the rings. For highlights to represent the lemon flowers I have placed small stems of alstromeria in vials covered in the paper serviette offcuts. A couple of branches, top and bottom, to “frame” the design along with some dried banana skins to repeat the indication of a spider from the small wire web hanging on one side.
At this point the design didn’t actually have a lemon in it and it needed a placement for visual balance so I partially covered a timber box and secured a lemon with bamboo skewers as a shadow box placement.
Judges Comments: . A very playful interpretation, the designer has creativity overload with so many different media used here. Using the lemon theme was a lovely idea, we felt the design is somewhat busy and the overall design could have been strengthened by using more lemon tones e.g., yellow wool and a few more lemons would have integrated the design a lot more.
