When I first saw the challenge board for the February Mixed Media Place Challenge I was immediately drawn to the mushroom. I don’t know why, but I love mushrooms…artistically. For food I can tolerate them to an extent. A very small extent! (except the white ‘button’ mushrooms, those are just a big ol’ NO!). Okay, that’s all besides the point, so back to my canvas.

I loved the color of the mushroom, and I am so over winter that I had no desire to do a winter themed project, but I also love the sepia of the top left photo, the close up of the water drop (I think that’s what it is) in the top center photo, and the color of the leaves of the top right photo. The mushroom and the three top photos were my main inspiration for my project. At first I had thought I would somehow use mushrooms, but after I did the paint pour I realized I needed something more. I don’t know how I came around to gears and rust paste, but it was something like this:

“I like the sepia and gold leaves, they look old. Those leaves look metallic. Rust is old. I have rust pastes. I also have some gold wax…and some metal flowers…and I made a bunch of resin gears & butterflies to have on hand…”

Basically, I think in run-on and/or incomplete sentences. The thoughts just go sometimes, and this time I went them!

I added the cabochon’s because the white space needed something, but I didn’t need more color! (Plus, they are what I thought of with the top middle photo!)