The Phoenix Project

The first ‘Phoenix Project’ painting is finished, the video uploaded to YouTube and the painting up for sale at http://zyllart.etsy.com
About the Painting: Our neighbor had a moving sale and made signs for it out of wood. After the sale, we found one of the signs she had put out down by the neighborhood market. I had seen her collecting the signs near the neighborhood earlier that day and just figured she either forgot about this one or didn’t want to bother to go down and get it.
So, I carried it back to the house and decided to use it as a free canvas. I debated whether to paint over all the text or let some of it show through.  In the spirit of using up the ‘debris’ around the house, I picked out a few acrylic paints that just had a little bit left in them, added some water to some. So the paints were going to be a bit see through in some cases. But after I saw the words showing through, I sort of liked the effect.
Some of the objects for this painting were found on walks to the same neighborhood market. Others were part of the ‘debris’ collection. Old soldering wire, shower curtain rings, small metal objects, left over parts from plumbing projects, bits of cardboard, etc. For some detail, a page of text written on a sheet of tracing paper. And for a kick, a small card that says ‘Play Money’ worth one penny from a Mallow Cup candy. (It’s worth 5 points and if you send them 100 of these cards, they will send you a dollar.)
The entire background is covered with the wax/resin compound, then heat treated for a smooth, shiny finish. Then the objects were secured with the same compound, mixed with some Burnt Siena pigment for a little color and shading. I’ll probably show a little of this techinique in up coming projects.
I’m still learning how to edit the video clips together and add transitions and such, so hopefully these will get smoother~~here’s the video:

This is just a short video intro to the Phoenix Project. The first painting video is almost completed and will be uploaded in the next day or so….

This project is a video blog showing the process of turning a pile of garbage and debris into beautiful artwork.

For the last few years I have saved items that I swore I would one day turn into art. Well, that day has finally arrived. My surroundings have become a huge pile of debris and the only way out is straight through this project.
Of course, I could just rent one of those huge dumpsters and be done with it, but my whole reason for keeping all of this debris in my life was to give IT new life. So the time has come to transform this living space and create beautiful art at the same time.