Grandma Penny goes big

In July of last year I met a little girl named Uma at the splash pad in Montreal's Mile End. We got to talking about our grandma's and Uma told me she had a Grandma Penny. For reasons unbeknownst to me, the name stayed in my head for weeks like any good ideas or imagery tend to do from time to time.

Ode to Grandma Penny. Later that week I came across a portrait from some database or other of an old woman who suited the name to a tee. Thus Grandma Penny came to be in stencil form. She has been a work in progress over the course of the year (no idea why I stick with some projects like the plague and abandon others) and yesterday I made the biggest stencil yet measuring in at 4x6'. 

Uma--where ever you are--this one's for you. I almost threw the whole lot in the garbage after going a little heavy handed on the spray adhesive. Thin paper, lots of delicate pieces, a shit tonne of glue and a mid air flip equals disaster. I had to take a rooftop BRAIN BREAK and remind myself not to get angry over such a trivial mistake considering the beauty of making art in my home on the floor at twenty six without a care in the world. What a luxury. Regardless and as always, it felt good to lay yet another project to bed. In the stencil process I ended up totally marring the original positive resulting in a one off. This one is for my home. 'Hope Lisa likes it, it's humungeous. 

Stencil hell to finished product! Grandma Penny stencil on muslin. July 2012/ Winnipeg.