Big Numbers: A Few Days Bakk

Yay! I am finally able to post THIS blog for my art trade with my soror @ARTina. Many moons ago, we decided to do a trade. She wanted shirts. I wanted a bag. Since then, I've started doing canvases and she makes dolls (more on that later), so we had to renegotiate the terms a little. Somehow I ended up painting a sewing machine. Lol.

Remember a couple of weeks bakk when I was cursing about a particular painting that was giving me problems? Well it's Artina's fault. She asked for a sewing machine...and a "maze" design similar to the one I did on the Sankofa hoodie. I tried that. I did. I haaaated it! It wasn't even bad. It just looked...sad...flat...and unSYM-ish. I was upset. No, I am not showing you that one. Chances are you'll love it like the people I did show. Blah. I have since painted over it.

Refusing to be defeated, I got a bigger canvas and started over from scratch. I was set on the green. So I stayed with that. I used the old antique sewing machines as inspiration. I stukk with that too. Everything else was completely different. And it was a good move. Here's the final piece:

"Sewn Together"

I used the logo that Artina used for one of her prints as the same logo on the machine. I nixed the maze. I changed the colors. I added the SYM Squiggle. Oh, and the brown pattern in the bakk is what inspired me to do the wood grain for "Leilani." I did multicolored green patches with white stitching to "build" the sewing machine. The colors made me think of a superhero. I started to think of the ribbon as a cape.  I mean, Artina IS pretty super with the sewing skills, so it all works out. When all was said and done, I ended up with something I was happy to share. Something I really liked. What do ya'll think?

Artina says: @SYM1DidIt I JUST OPENED MY BOX!!!! #myfacehurtsfromsmiling. Real talk? This painting is inkable #flyenough4atattoo!.....& had the NERVE to put my lil' artist logo on it??? SO thorough! P.S. I'm fighting the urge to put on 1 of the shirts ryt NOW!