If I just Had...

The assignment was to begin with negative space. In fact the assignment was to remain with negative space. I moved our Lucky Bamboo plant—which is really not a bamboo plant—to the kitchen counter.

Nothing worked according to plan—the negative spaces didn't show a plant. In fact they looked like erratic splotches. Not wanting to call it a dismal failure I added some positive shapes which really didn't fit, but it certainly looked better then the color patches with no connecting links.

At least I knew when to stop.

I've started projects that didn't work, but not wanting to shout disaster I added more and more. One mixed media project gained weight as I pasted found items to an already heavy wood board. That didn't look right so I painted the entire board with a gloss medium—a thick substantial medium.

I added tree bark, mulch and pebbles for texture. As a last salvage effort I cut out words, phrases, sayings from National Geographic magazines—found in the library magazine bin.

"The world's heaviest snakes, green anacondas ..." covered some bark.
Then I stopped—skidded to a halt.

"There's nothing more to do...at this time."