Click on image for largest view.

Head of Betty Boop - FRESCURA 5-11-2010
Black and white drawing - ink on cardstock
"The creative person finds himself in a state of turmoil, restlessness, emptiness, and unbearable frustration unless he expresses his inner life in some creative way." — Silvano Arieti

I used to think that you had to have a vision of a finished product before you started a piece. This is not the case for my art. It comes to me, bit by bit, as I work on it.
Not sure exactly when I started this. I drew this skull and filled it with circles and then set it aside. When I pulled it back out, I started filling it in with lines and color and this is what I ended up with. It wasn't until many months later that I realized how much I was influenced by the books I was currently reading about polymer clay. That is how this piece eventually got it's name over a year later. Millefiori means "a thousand flowers" in Italian and is traditionally created using glass. The books I had checked out of the library had instructions on how to make intricate canes out of polymer clay to slice into beads or disks.
I never did make anything out of polymer clay, but it had obviously influenced me. If you have never seen Millefiori, here is a picture I just found on Google.




Click on picture for a larger view.

Since I have been doing more drawings, doodles etc. and scanning more of them, I have also been playing with them using PSP - JASC Paint Shop Pro Version 6.0. (I know there are much newer versions, but I just don't feel the need to upgrade ANY of my software programs like I used to. $$$ Free at last!) I can take one scan and work with it for hours and never run out of ideas of what to do with it. I guess it occupies and soothes my ADHD/obsessive-compulsive mind. Now I just need to figure out a way to make a living doing it!