Making Connections

I'm getting near the end of my "Patterns and Grids" book... but I think I'm about ready to move onto a
large piece anyway. This one is acrylic paint and collage.

I was sitting in my car last week with the radio on... stuck in traffic, of course... listening to yet another discussion about public transit in Toronto. For those of you in the area, you know this is an ongoing problem that doesn't seem to have any solution. On and on it goes... subways, light rail, busses, streetcars, blah, blah, blah. We need something, but there's no money. God, I'm so tired of it.

"Aerial View", 9x12" Acrylic on Paper

Like many other major cities, Toronto is laid out in a grid. Streets either run North-South or East-West, and if you know which way the street goes, you can't get lost. I was thinking about grid-lock when I finally saw it... grids connecting one thing to another, like lines on a map. Then repeat. Patterns and grids are all about repetition and connection. Now I know my direction.

I did the above spread in my Grids book using bits from a map I had in my stash o' stuff. The colours are the similar to my yellow spread from a couple weeks ago, only toned down considerably. I was still thinking about connections when I did this second piece on paper. It was already started, but I had lost it along the way. (Hooray, I used another thing from the pile!) It was a very bright blue/green when I started, but I was really feeling the muted tones, so I went with it. Sometimes when you start something you have no idea how things are going to work out.