Hippie Love: Peace, Love & Dreaming

This desk sooooo needed a revival! Press board, generic, some assembly required...ya, you know the deal.  We've all had a desk like this at one point in time, so don't judge, lol!

This is the first piece of 6 that I am redoing for a customer, four of which are set to be  personally designed for her children-this desk being one of them.  The criteria for this piece.

• Include the quote, "Forever and ever and always and always
• The little girl is 9 so, fun, funky and bright!
• Have it match her bedspread, in regards to color

Pretty simple, right?  She was very cool in giving me free range-LOVE THAT!  SO, I seized the opportunity (or in my case, paintbrush) and ran with it, wildly I might add (which has happened before hence the spilled paint in the next picture).

As always, I started with primer.  I know, you're asking yourself, "Mary, did you get any primer on the piece or is it just on the floor?"  "Well..." I would sheepishly reply, "Yes and no." 

As you can see I have cans of paint all over the place. Which is funny considering my last post was all about how "OCD" I am about my paints, but in my defense I often work on a couple of pieces at once. When I do, I leave the the colors out for easy access. 

Some days it's like I'm maneuvering through an obstacle course!  (Can I get an AMEN if you feel me!) So once, no maybe twice, okay, five times so far, I have tripped over cans and spilled the entire contents on to the floor. Have you ever spilled paint?  Your world suddenly goes into slow-mo. Like when you lock your keys in the car, shut the door and suddenly realized the keys are in the ignition??? Ya, that kinda slow-mo. You quickly scoop up the can, but can only watch as the paint s-l-o-w-l-y oozes everywhere! 

It was too big of a mess for Bounty, so, I put a fan on it and let it dry!  Now, I have large rubbery spots of crazy color all over my studio carpet.  I can hear the cringing from here, but no worries, it was a crappy carpet anyway.

After my piece was fully primed it was time to lay out the design.  I wasn't sure at first that I wanted to break the top into 6 separate sections, but as I starred at the blank, white "canvas" (which can be the most intimidating part of an art project) I just decided to go with a hippie"esq" theme.

One of the corners would be a rainbow background and to do that I had to blend the colors while they were still wet.  I didn't just want a block of color I wanted the stripes to fade into each other like a real rainbow.

After I laid down the base colors in each section, I went back into each square and put in more details.

Right down the center I ran the quote, "Forever and ever and always and always".  A sentiment her and her daughter share with each other often. I wanted it to be the focal point of the piece.

Each block has its own word; Laugh, Peace, Love, Hope, Dream & Family.  I felt that even though each square was a separate piece of art work, putting a word in each box would bring the pieces together, as well as stress the important things in life. 

AND....hippie drum roll please....This was the final piece.  

And YES, my hands are totally cramped from painting all those small little circles on the drawer and ALLLLLLL the black and white checks on the legs!  BUT, it was so worth it!  I'm thinking this 9 year old will have no problem doing her homework on this stylishly funky desk.  

What do you think? 

Now, I am off to start her next piece!  This beautifully antique chair that was made by her grandfather.  How awesome are the hand carved crowns and the raw carvings in the center of each one!  Beautiful. This will be transformed with whites, tans and various shades of pinks. A very soft & feminine piece.

 Stay tuned!

Again, ignore the paint on the floor, Hahahaha!