Cute as a Button!

Just finished this canvas mixed media piece!

 And I do think it is

Cute as a Button.

Don't you agree?

It makes me smile on the inside...

well maybe on the outside too.

It started out as a painting by a friend who was moving and decided to toss it.

I grabbed it and gave it a new life.  Some of the original texture 

and peekaboo bits of brown still shine through.

How cool is that?

It also morphed through many ungainly stages

as paintings tend to do.

I hated it until I was about 75% through;

Well that is not really true--

I just couldn't figure how to combine the spontaneous undercoatings

with the look it needed to be finished and look like one of my paintings.

It has layers of texture...

and paper I painted years ago...

and stamps and stencils and rubbings...

and stitchings...

and my mom's vintage buttons that make me smile.

It will live at artEAST in April until it is purchased,

and if not,

then I know the perfect place for it in my home.