Brit with tempered glass. Copyright 2009 Armand Dijcks

I'd like to share with you what I've learned so far while working on a new piece titled Under Pressure, which is the first piece of the BREAKAWAY! series.

Anyway, the piece is now half-way done...and it's the focus in (forthcoming) video Episode 19 (which is why the above photo was taken). I know I promised to share more about the progress of my new book, BREAKOUT! Your Pathway to Success, but I'll save that for Episode 20. (I know, I know. Lots of "break" words, but these have all been floating around me for several months. Can't help it. See my previous post here).

Under Pressure is using what I call the fresco cement technique, which I first tried when I made a piece called Becoming back in 2007 (after a year of first experimenting). BUT the difference is that the colors in Becoming were intense and not blended in with the cement because back then I was clearing a lot of "intense" energy from my aura, thus becoming my true myself. In contrast, Under Pressure wanted me to blend the pigments in with the off-white cement, thus making the colors softer and pastel. At first I wasn't thrilled...until I realized that it reflects me. I'm softer now, too (as one of my dear friends pointed out to me a while ago). I've cleared most of the "hard" energy and am now clearing residual "issues", which allows my soft side to show. I'm also letting people IN, thus allowing them to truly connect with me rather than keeping them at arm's length (thus blending pigments rather than keeping them on the surface).

The colors in the different areas of Under Pressure are all blended into one another, but they're not blended "perfectly" because all the transitions in my life have not exactly been...er...smooth. It's also a rather spontaneous piece in that it's a bit "messier" than my earlier work. What can I say? Life is messy and (thankfully) doesn't always go according to plan. So the "messiness" is good because it means I've let go and am creating with the Universe instead of being a control freak. And I'm not trying to tip-toe through life anymore.

Another point to mention is that this is the first work with zero straight lines. It's not flat, either. Actually, that goes for the entire series. I've sawed all the substrates into shapes that are anything but square or rectangular and am sculpting the surface to make them 3D. The series is designed like how I was trained to design a fashion collection back in school...so they can stand alone but together, tell a story.

And one last note. When I sketched the series out back in May, I let my anger and frustration out. And perhaps I should mention I was listening to Pearl Jam reeaaaally loud, especially "Black". I love the rawness of Eddie Vedder's voice when he sings:

"And now my bitter hands cradle broken glass
Of what was everything?
All the pictures have all been washed in black, tattooed everything...

"All the love gone bad turned my world to black
Tattooed all I see, all that I am, all I'll be... yeah...
Uh huh... uh huh... ooh...

"I know someday you'll have a beautiful life,
I know you'll be a sun in somebody else's sky, but why
Why, why can't it be, can't it be mine?"

So a few days ago I posted that I was gonna throw glass at the piece while working on it. Guess what? I didn't. It turns out I don't have any more anger in me after that last healing(!). (See previous post here and here). Pretty good, eh?