Parrot Painting.... part 2

I wish I had documented this all the way through, piece by piece, moment by moment - but I did not. Sometimes, I just cannot stop and take pictures of my process because it is too disjointing to switch back and forth between right brain and left brain every time I make a move - but I did photograph the results when I was done with each stage of events in this long process of the Parrot Painting...

After about a month of staring at this cut out metal object lying on the living room floor, I received an idea of what to do. 

I leave the pictures on the living room floor. I walk by them and stare at them many times throughout the day. I think this is a form of contemplation. It gives my mind a puzzle to solve. It is an outlet I use in order to be able to contain what I read about that is going on in the world and what I experience dealing with people at work and dealing with family interactions - I have this art-work-puzzle that my brain is working out and it gives me something - a constant - that is mine - so that I don't flip out when I hear the latest horror of man's inhumanity to man and sentient life and to the earth - which I hear about daily from my independent media sources. 

It gives my brain a way to process. To "not" freeze up. It seems to give me a story line and a context within which to "know" the events that go on - and also to let the events influence me - in the art, so I can sell paint colors to happy sleeping new-home-owners at big box orange without screaming "WAKE UP!!!"

So, this cut out metal nailed to this piece of wood lay on the living room floor, collecting dog hair, and news about Walt Disney pedophilia, Trump/Clinton idiocy, police brutality, plastic oceans, encroaching fascism, my sis living in her car, corporate greed and slavery, my family drama, mark passio podcasts 60-73, and everything else,  for about a month and half, before I realized what to do next.

I collect crushed cans. I LOVE crushed cans.  I see crushed cans as a portals lying there on the street - all colorful and beautiful and seemingly random like the forest floor but not - perfectly crushed and folded by the Spirit. Crushed cans are accidental and synchronistic epiphanies - and they are like the shadows of angels to me. They give me hope. I can step into the crushed can synchromystic message and see a way out. Usually, I use the cans just as they are - I emulate them - and build a picture around them - but in this case - I had to go outside my comfort zone and do something I would not normally do. 

I knew I was going to use the Natural Ice can for the body of the bird because the Logo looked like claws - so I cut the sides of the can and put the 2 halves together bottom to bottom and used gorilla glue to attach it to the metal. 

At this point I got rid of the sculpy head - a mistake - oh well. I make them. 

Instead, I had a couple of Mango Arizonas and a Cherry Coke, a Fanta Orange and a Mountain Dew plus a Red Bull... and of course the Monster Sunrise for the tail - 

I cut the cans up into the shapes I needed to build the parrot.