The weight of art - by the pound

I am now defining the quality of my work by the weight of the pieces themselves. The lighter the work the better. That is without sacraficing durability and strength. Less is Less is my mantra and if I can put everything I want into a piece that is as light as a feather then that is better than a block of concrete that cannot be displayed on a wall, safely. I am working between 2-4 lbs and 2.5 lbs seems to be an optimal weight for my final product.

The struggle with this work is the plane of reference, the printed/painted surface that holds the design. I have gone very thin and applied various layers of fiber and gypsum to thicken and strengthen the image area while simultaneously reducing the depth that is required as a substrate to carry the image. Then I have been mounted the image, thicker than paper, but thinner than glass, to a molded frame from a variety of materials including Forton MG, hydrocal FGR 95, surfboard resin and mixed versions of the above as a gel coat with atomized metal formed into the top layer to build up resistance to the elements. While I can cast the image or add the image into the mold of the frame I have worked away from this lately because I have been using a frame and bonding the image and outer frame to the inner frame by adding more gypsum plasters which simply make the pieces too heavy and unmanagable. So my latest incarnations of work have been to make the frame and add it to the piece separately, outside the mold, and therefore I have removed the need for thick heavy support pieces.

Ideally the light weight will allow more flexibility in display. As with any engineering project the structure often has as much to do with holding up the materials as with the actual purposeful parts of the structure, which preverts the engineering in many cases. This is the case with my artwork and the liberation I feel by working with heavy materials and including the effects of resistence to the elements, but by making them light I feel I have achieved a goal. Coating and sealing is still problematic, as well as, the content, but now I must settle on just how I want my production to begin. What should the final defining characteristics of these items be?

I can do photo-fresco, screen painting or stencil painting. Photo fresco seems like more of a duplicative process, just making more permanent copies of other works. However, I like the process and need to get better at it. Screen painting and stencil painting is the most satisfying of the styles, but stretching the frames to start more work is a debillitating task that I find hard to accomplish. I can't afford to buy the frames that I need to stay busy with hard cash and recycling the old frames that I have is very attractive, but it takes time and energy. Each time I finish cleaning screens I feel too tired to do any work. Restretching mesh instead of cleaning out mesh is the way to go, but I don't have a consistent regiment for accomplishing this. Tomorrow.