Pat Turner’s Rooster

Pat's New Artwork

Pat’s Rooster is a heavily textured acrylic painting with decorative sides measuring 12 in. x 12 in.  The texture is built from magazine pages, paper pulp, and Light Modeling Paste.  This piece was commissioned by Pat Turner in Americus, Georgia.

I can honestly say that I have painted more roosters this year than I thought was possible!  SO me being me, I had to push the envelope with this guy.  Pat Turner has been one of the most inspiring and loving mentors in my life. She has always kept her inner child very happy while teaching and influencing countless students, family friends, and foster children.  She loves all things authentic and infused with love, so that is how I created Pat’s Rooster.

I infused this piece with all of the fun and love I possibly could reminding myself constantly not to take myself too seriously and to explore as much as I could.  I built up the texture on the bottom half of the piece with black and white photographs of women and their daughters embracing.  As I ripped the pages out and shredded them, I thought of Pat’s daughter Mattie and the love they shared.  I added paper pulp as the texture for the top portion of the background.  Playing with paper pulp reminds me of being a little kid and making homemade paper in arts & crafts class, so including it in this piece was a way to invite my inner child to play as well. I used bright vivid colors as is often characteristic of my work, and I also added playful decorative details on the edges of the 2″ gallery canvas.

Playful Decorative Sides

As with every piece of artwork I create for someone, I took into consideration Pat’s likes and her personality to create a piece specifically for her.  In the great scheme of things, Pat was again a mentor to me just by asking me to do a piece for her.  I was able to channel the “Patness” which has influenced my work in a very real and wonderful way.