Krazy Kawaii Weekend.

How fitting is it that here at the end of my month dedicated to Kawaii/Harajuku themed pieces that my friend Jess throws a Kawaii-themed birthday extravaganza?  Perfect.

I worked on what started out as a neckpiece for about a week, and it went through many changes.  For starters, I gathered the materials.  Oddly enough, many of the materials I already had on hand, but I did go and purchase some items at two of my favorite places, Michael's and Deals.  All in all, I spent about $20.00 total create this monstrosity, half of which was just the stuffed animals.

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...and now the series is winding down.  I had fun working on the piece this month and when it gets to the last few days I always think to myself, 'Does it make sense?  Does it flow?  What would I have done differently?  If I was making ten more pieces, what would happen in those pieces to resolve the series?'  These are just things that I think about...wait...okay, that I OBSESS over.  

Another thing that was on my mind this weekend, and this goes back to my OCD tendencies and self-imposed 'rules and guidelines' for my daily art...what to do about the pieces from March 28-29th.  Okay, hear me out.  I stayed up late helping Jess and Sofie with party decorations...Jess was cooking with her husband Adam and friend Robin..Sof was bedazzling pinwheels...and me...I was sitting in the middle of a huge piece of canvas on the floor painting rainbow patterns.  So when it came to finishing my daily piece...I just had a head drawn.  Next thing you know I am sleeping.

So I got up early Saturday morning and finished up that piece...I actually ended up adding it to the top of a box that was part of Jessie's birthday present.  I had started this box as an example/project to work on alongside my mixed media students at Muzart and it all just kind of came together.  I glued the face on the top and added details with pain then embellished it with cabochons and gemstones.  That was my piece for March 28th.  The inside cover was the drawing/collage/painting combination that I have been working so far this year, heavily influenced by fashion.  I went back into the piece and embellished the neckpiece with gems and then went back in with paint and added kawaii/harajuku style makeup to the face.  I added a message to the inside bottom of the box and then filled it with five frames, a pad of mixed media paper, a pack of new microns and a Michael's gift card.  I decided that this would count as my piece for March 29th and then got busy working on the final touches for my outfit for the evening.  

Seems silly, but this was a big deal for me to make this decision. When I used the hashtag, #OCDartist...I really mean it!