I
never thought I was any good at art so I never really tried before.
But skip back to June 2018 and the arrival of chronic back pain as a
result of pushing way to hard at a construction job and I had time to
explore other ways of keeping my mind occupied.
Boredom
kicked in pretty early as I am an active guy who was reduced to not
being active at all due to constant back pain. I needed something to
do and after a trip to the Works one afternoon I spotted some wooden
boxes and decided to buy a couple and see what I could do to decorate
them.
This
came out way better than I had ever hoped and it inspired me to do
more.
I
painted and decorated a few more over the following weeks but I
fancied trying putting paint to canvas.
The
bomb stencil was downloaded and then printed on to normal a4 paper,
covered front and back in wide masking tape and then cut out. The
stencil was then placed onto the already black painted canvas and a
metallic purple sprayed over the top. Grey primer was then fogged
over the purple to give a misty look.
At
this point I was totally stoked with what I had created. Depression
and anxiety over the years has lead to a lot of self doubt. I never
thought anyone would appreciate what I had created or that they would
be negative and that would make me ever more depressed and anxious.
However in the last few years I have gone through a few life changes
that helped me to see that I can be creative and I can open up my
ideas to an audience and not be worried about the response.
My
passion for cycling and mechanical knowledge means that I always have
bike parts lying around and after buying some more canvases I decided
to combine the two.
Combining
the cogs with the canvas was a huge boost for my confidence. I had
made something that I was proud to have on my wall and confident
enough to share with everyone.
The
process whilst simple didn’t always come out as planned. I had made
a template using some wood effect wrap that was lying around in the
shape of some vines. Whilst the base coat was tacky I rather
impatiently put the template onto the canvas and sprayed some more
paint. this combined with the cold weather here meant that the vinyl
reacted with the paint and the edges bled and it just looked like
trash. With the lower layer still wet I threw down another coat,
chucked on the cogs, misted with blue, gold and black and walked
away.
The
following morning I attempted to remove the cogs and due to the sheer
volume of paint they were stuck fully to the canvas. I had to resort
to a fine screw driver to remove them and with them came chunks of
paint. My first thought was that it was ruined, but I held it up to
the light and saw that the damage I had inflicted were some of the
strongest features of the piece.
This
project taught me that I can be creative, I can make something that
is unique and interesting and most importantly that I should never
doubt my abilities.
So
what is the next move? Well I still have the back pain but the
boredom is less so. Painting these pieces has given me a great sense
of well being and helped me to keep as active as possible not only
physically but mentally as well. I fully intend to make more. I want
to experiment with different bike components as well as expand the
range of stencils and find out if I can make another stencil that
works as well as the bomb did!
I
will be posting pictures of all of the finished pieces for you to
enjoy and share.
Please
visit either my Facebook
page or Tweet me to see
what the next project will be!
If
you would like a canvas from this collection then please email me at
Ecirpnodrog@gmail.com. I am looking to cover the cost of the canvas,
paint and postage only but welcome any offers as well as feedback.
What items would you like to see painted in this style?
Thank
you for taking the time to read this post and please share this, you
fantastic human being you!
