After that first, flip through every page, randomly checking out various things, I got down to the serious consuming of it's contents. It's not a meal that I'm rushing. Mary Beth has woven a wonderful array of new ideas, tips and techniques that beg you to slow down and chew more slowly. She introduces you to fellow artists, some I knew of, others are people I look forward to discovering more about. You get to understand their creative journey and all with a love for good food and mixed media. I'll let Mary Beth explain the connection:
"Art and food: Two of life's most sensory pleasures...being an artist and a foodie--I have pondered the similarities between art and food and am utterly convinced the processes of creating art and cooking are very much the same."
Just as there are yummy recipes scattered throughout the book, so too there are some great mixed media creations that will leave you drooling and ready to try the ideas out for yourself. She introduces you to a new texturing product called, Wood Icing and frankly I can't wait to try it out. Saving my pennies for it and some of Mary Beth's unique stencils. When I look at the array of jars on my shelf and consider how Wood Icing could replace a number of them, I get excited.
Back to the book. Some of the things I most value are the working studio tips that Mary Beth dishes out, things that will help me to work better, smarter. Like her suggestion of creating 'colour palette pages, where you take out those combinations of colours and test them out, see how they preform, how they interact with other colours, what they are like transparent or opaque. Colour choice is the single hardest thing to work out when it comes to abstracts. You don't have a photo or still life sitting in front of you that suggests colours, you are working that out in your minds eye and it takes time to explore and play with the combinations to know what is going to work for the piece.
In walking her readers through numerous project ideas, she also exposes you to a wide variety of substrates, tools and mediums. You will have no trouble finding something to wet your creative appetite. I love that she lays out a project giving you the steps and information on the things she uses but never dictates the details, allowing you the artist to develop the project in your unique style. Mary Beth points the way but encourages us to allow for our own 'flavour' to come through, in fact to find your artist voice is a lot like becoming a good cook, you've got to do a lot of it to develop style and flare in the kitchen and the studio.
Prior to being able to order my own copy of 'Flavour' here in Canada, I entered a few of the book give aways that Mary Beth and contributing artist to the book were offering. Well I won one of those contests! So an autographed copy is on it's way to me along with some goodies from Mary Beth's stash of fun. I can't tell you how excited and pleased I am about this win. I've pondered what to do with my current copy of Flavor for Mixed Media and think donating it to the Library may be a good choice. I love the idea of a number of creative spirits being able to enjoy and learn from Mary Beth as I am.
