I have noticed more and more groups using the Gothic Arch format for swaps lately, and now that I've worked with it for the first time I can understand why. The shape is intriguing and lends itself well to a creative process. The alteredartswap yahoo group is using the arch as the format for a year long mingle. As with the group's 8 x 8 Tip In Journal, which I described in a previous post, 12 artists chose their own theme and are paired monthly with a partner for whom they create an arch illustrating their partner's chosen theme. By year's end each participant will have 12 themed Gothic Arches, which we can bind into a book or display in whatever way we like.
My partner is Debbie, and her theme is Shirley Temple Movies. Such fun! My first challenge for this project was to narrow down my choices from Shirley's many movies. Given that I am a life-long Kentucky resident, I thought about working with "Seabiscuit," which recounts the story of an "underdog" horse who rises to fame, but genius definitely was not burning on that one, so I then considered "The Little Rebel." After all, I'm a big rebel, although not necessarily in the movie's connatation of the word, but my muse felt no inspiration for that one either.
Then it hit me. "Heidi." As a child I pestered my mom near to death with my frequent pleas to read Heidi to me again and again as my bedtime story, and when I mastered reading for myself, I nearly wore out our copy of the tale. To me there was something magically alluring about the title character, something so pure and loyal about her. I was also fascinated by descriptions of the alpine goat farm where she lived so happily with her beloved grandfather. That imaginary scenic beauty informed my dreams for years.
In 2005 I had the great good fortune to take a two week cruise through the fjords of Norway, and my favorite experience of that voyage was a day trip high into the mountains to visit a goat farm, which is operated today just as it has been for hundreds of years. Fascinating! And everywhere I turned, I caught glimpses of Heidi's world. A long time dream came true for me that day. So to create my Heidi-Themed Gothic Arch, I chose some of my favorite snapshots from that memorable day and incorporated them with scans of posters from the movie. I mounted them on a trio of coordinated papers and outlined the entire arch with tiny, tiny, tiny beads (one of my new favorite art supplies).
The pages appeal to the happy child within me, and I'm hoping Debie will like what I've created for her.
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