Rejuvenating old work

One of the advantages of moving studio space is that I have found lots of old pieces of artwork. Little cards I'd made, small textile experiments and old sketchbooks full of ideas never realised. 

So when a new book arrived on my doorstep, 'Wabi Sabi' by Serena Barton, I embraced my revitalised creativity (thanks to a trip to see Chagall at Tate Liverpool) and used some of Bartons suggestions for experimenting. It's an American based book, so a lot of the products she suggests aren't available here and I'm quite tight so don't want to pay postage from the US! 

So I've embraced the Wabi Sabi philosophy, simple asymmetry using textures to celebrate the small and sublime, adapted my materials and started to rejuvenate & recycle some old pieces of artwork. 

I've come up with three abstract pieces using such a wide range of materials from kitchen towels to latex to acrylic and I'm quite pleased with the results. 

There is a lot more philosophy behind the concept of Wabi Sabi, a Japanese term to describe the aesthetic that is imperfect and impermanent that is subtle. I'm still learning about this term of philosophy but  it may just have become my latest obsession that I need to absorb and read more about.