In my last post, I posted about trying new things. Soldering has been on my list of things to learn for a while now and I’m very happy to say I accomplished it!

Even better, with this project, I got to learn a new skill and apply it to a creative idea that I’ve had bouncing around in my brain for months. I’ve wanted to find a way to marry a lighting element with one of my collages since I made my giant Whiskey Girls piece back in 2018. I had originally planned on pursuing neon for this project, but as it happens, bending neon is a highly specialized set of skills and artistry that takes years of apprenticeship to master. So, in order to keep some wind in my sails and my hopes alive, I settled and came up with the compromise of attaching some LEDs to a canvas collage piece.

In order to do this, I took a basic red LED strip piece in the shape of some luscious lips and adhered it to the canvas using epoxy. Before doing this, I also had to bust out the Dremel to take off some extra chunky plastic so it would look cleaner. Then, carefully, I cut a small slice in the front of the canvas where I needed the wire to pull through. In order to pull the battery pack through, I had to snip the wire, pull it through the front, strip it, and then splice the cut wires together with solder, closing off the new connection with some heat shrink. The battery pack fits neatly in the back and it looks amazing!

While it’s not my endgame plan for this new direction, I think this first attempt at it has taught me a lot and I have so many ideas and creative solutions for future pieces! Bringing together paint, canvas, collage, and LEDs is definitely an avenue I’d like to pursue in the future.

The future does indeed look bright! Thanks for reading!~