I recycle a lot of canvases.  I had a lot when I left Portland because I mentored children in art.  They would paint and paint, then give up and wouldn’t want to even look at the canvas — especially the older kids.  I painted over one with a dark phthalo blue and the paint puckered and cracked.  I wasn’t sure I could paint over it and have the paint stay on the canvas.  So I set it aside.  Then, in a bit of inspired thinking outside the canvas, I decided to slash it open.  I painted the back yellow then peeled it back and stapled it open.  It took a few months to decide what to put in the open space, but I think I came up with a good way to use it.

My camera isn’t taking good photos these days.  Also my hands aren’t as steady as they once were.  So I made a little film to show this one.  The lighting still isn’t great, but I think you’ll get an idea of what it looks like.

(I didn’t glue the smaller canvas to the larger one, I used a staple gun. Glue wouldn’t hold it.)

The Family Trees Exhibit will be here in Memphis, on Saturday March 3 from 4-8, at Crosstown Arts, 430 N Cleveland.  I hope you can stop by.

If you’d like to support my art and writing, please consider becoming a patron on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=8001665

You can get prints and cards of my work on Redbubble:

https://www.redbubble.com/people/JoyMurray/shop?asc=u