Leftovers

I used to hate leftovers. Whatever I ate for dinner was fine, but the passage of time and process of reheating did my food no favors. As I became a better cook, I discovered my leftovers were much more appetizing. Over the years I also learned to incorporate yummy leftovers into an even yummier dish the next day. (Have you ever made risotto cakes with leftover risotto? Makes me drool just thinking about it.)  Now I cook extra of everything, just so I can have the leftovers.

Lately, the leftover concept is starting to work in the art studio as well. The scraps and overflow from one project keep finding their way into other projects, often with better results. Last night is a good example. I was working on a swap-bot project with frequent interruptions from my insomniac son.  I hate to waste paint and acrylic paint dries fast, so every time I needed to walk away from the table I would smear my extra paint onto an index card or scrap of paper.  Many hours and interruptions later, I am done with my swap, but realize I haven't made an index card for the day.

In a moment of inspiration, fueled by an almost hallucinatory exhaustion, I assembled a variety of leftovers into one of my all-time favorite cards:

 

I had smeared red paint on an index card and a book page.  I had smeared a homemade blue glaze on another book page and on the red index card.  I ripped and cut the book pages into these shapes, glued them in place and applied black sharpie and white gel pen.  Such simple ingredients, really.  And like all simple ingredients, they can be combined in endless ways.

This piece inspired a series of index cards over the next several days.