When I uncovered a couple of ratty plywood boards in a shipping box I set them aside thinking they had a life yet in front of them. They were 15×15 squares, give or take, and they had been used as bracing inside the aforementioned box. Somehow it seemed sad, wasteful to just chuck them into the garbage.
Finally, after I’d finished another piece and wasn’t sure what I wanted to commit to for my next go, so I grabbed the boards and put together a very rough, very primitive oil paint mix with cold wax and worked it into the dry surface. It was fun. The final touch, on one, was to grab some arugula leaves from the garden. I dipped them in my mixture and rolled them across the surface.
The result is messy, rough and raw. I used twine to hang them up in my laundry room where everything starts dirty and gets sanitized and folded. Somehow, that seemed just right.
